g^u^j^ri^/ 


l/.^»  s 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 


OUR    J 
FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 


BY 

FARNHAM    BISHOP 

AUTHOR  OF 
"PANAMA  PAST  AND  PRESENT"  AND  "THE  STORY  OF  THE  SUBMARINE" 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 
1916 


COPYRIGHT,  1916,  BY 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


Published  August,  1916 


n 

8 


PREFACE 
FIRST  MOTOR   BATTERY,   N.  G.  N.  Y. 

STATE    CAMP,    PEEKSKILL,    N.    Y. 

July,  1916, 

THE  sentry  on  Number  Three  Post 
passes  as  I  write  this.  The  collar  of  his 
O.  D.  shirt  is  turned  up  like  an  old-fash 
ioned  stock;  the  lean,  brown  profile  under 
the  bell-crowned  forage-cap  is  that  of  an 
old-time  Yankee.  A  voice  somewhere  be 
hind  me  demands:  "When  are  we  going 
to  Mexico?"  It  is  '46  come  back  again. 
But  across  the  parade-ground  rolls  the 
monstrous  gray  bulk  of  Battlecar  B-i, 
a  gray  steel  fortress  on  armored  wheels, 
and  up  the  slope  from  the  Peekskill  road 
comes  a  dashing,  sputtering  detachment 
of  motor-cycle  men.  It  is  a  far  cry  from 
the  flintlocks  and  three-dollar  horses- 
see  Grant's  "Memoirs"— of  seventy  years 
ago. 
When  we  left  our  armory,  some  three 


34C695 


PREFACE 

weeks  ago,  none  doubted  that  our  second 
war  in  Mexico  was  at  hand.  Some,  com 
paring  the  massacre  of  the  troopers  of  the 
Tenth  Cavalry  at  Carrizal  with  the  cap 
ture  of  Thornton's  dragoons,  believed  that 
it  had  already  begun.  Now  it  seems  to 
have  been  averted,  at  least  temporarily, 
perhaps  forever.  It  is  no  use  trying  to 
guess  what  is  going  to  happen  next  in 
Mexico. 

It  was  the  expectation  of  a  second  war, 
two  years  ago,  that  revived  my  own  in 
terest  in  the  war  of  1846-48.  Most  of  its 
histories  can  be  divided  into  two  classes. 
First  come  those  written  immediately  after 
the  conclusion  of  peace.  The  authors  of 
these  painted  everything  red,  white,  and 
blue,  and  chanted  songs  of  glory.  Then 
come  the  histories  written  under  what  may 
be  called  Abolition  influence.  The  authors 
of  these  painted  everything  coal  black  and 
passed  by  on  the  other  side. 

Following  in  the  footsteps  of  Mr.  George 
L.  Rives,  who,  in  his  splendid  work,  "The 
Relations  Between  the  United  States  and 
Mexico,  1821-1848,"  was  the  first  to  ap 
proach  the  subject  with  scientific  impar- 


VI 


PREFACE 

tiality,  I  have  tried  to  give  a  fair  account 
of  the  causes  and  events  of  our  first  war 
in  Mexico.  God  grant  there  may  never 

be  a  second ! 

FARNHAM  BISHOP. 


Vll 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    TEXAS  AND  THE   KINGDOM  OF  NEW 

SPAIN i 

II.    THE    MEXICAN   WAR   OF    INDEPEND 
ENCE    10 

III.  MIGRATION  OF  AMERICANS  TO  TEXAS  22 

IV.  " REMEMBER  THE  ALAMO!"     •     •     •  35 
V.     MEDIATION  AND  ANNEXATION       .     .  53 

VI.     CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR 65 

VII.     PALO  ALTO  AND  RESACA  DE  LA  PALMA  80 

VIII.    THE  CONQUEST  OF  CALIFORNIA    .     .  98 

IX.    MONTEREY  AND  BUENA  VISTA      .     .  114 

X.    NEW  MEXICO  AND  CHIHUAHUA     .     .  138 

XL    VERA  CRUZ  AND  CERRO  GORDO    .     .  150 

XII.    FROM  PUEBLA  TO  CHURUBUSCO    .     .  167 

XIII.  THE  FALL  OF  THE  CITY  OF  MEXICO  .  184 

XIV.  THE    TREATY    OF    GUADALUPE     HI 

DALGO 200 

XV.    THE  RESULTS  OF  THE  WAR     .     .     .210 

INDEX 219 

ix 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

General  Scott's  Entrance  into  Mexico      .     .  Frontispiece 

FACING   PAGE 

The  Defence  of  the  Alamo 46 

The  Battle  of  Palo  Alto 90 

The  Battle  of  Buena  Vista 132 

The  Bombardment  of  Vera  Cruz   .     .     .     .     .     .  152 

The  Battle  of  Cerro  Gordo .     .  164 

The  Battle  of  Churubusco ^  .  174 

The  Storming  of  Chapultepec— Pillow's  Attack  .    \  192 

MAPS 

FACING  PAGE 

The  Kingdom  of  New  Spain 6 

Mexico  in  1845 62 


INIV. 


•UR  FIRST  WARJ      MEXICO 


CHAPTER  I 


TEXAS  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  NEW 
SPAIN 

IJTR  first  war  in  Mexico  began  in 
Texas  and  because  of  our  annexation 
of  Texas.  And  to  fully  understand  the 
causes  of  that  war  we  must  turn  back  to 
the  very  beginning  of  Texan  history,  when 
Alvarez  de  Pineda  discovered  the  land  of 
the  Tejas  Indians  and  explored  its  coast  in 


Other  Spaniards  followed  Pineda,  and 
in  1535  Nunez  Cabeza  de  Vaca  and  his 
three  companions  performed  the  incredible 
feat  of  crossing  not  only  Texas  but  the  en 
tire  continent,  from  where  they  had  been 
shipwrecked  on  the  coast  of  Florida  to  a 
Spanish  settlement  on  the  Pacific.  During 
the  rest  of  the  sixteenth  century  and  most 
of  the  seventeenth  the  Spaniards  confined 
themselves  to  sending  various  exploring 


VfPlu 

«  ~   «  r  o  »c* 
«"  ••       *•;  .-.*-  -      :    ;   *'°*  • 

OUR  FiR?sf  %AR  IN  MEXICO 


expeditions  through  Texas  without  making 
any  attempt  to  settle  there,  for  it  was  not 
the  sort  of  country  they  chose  to  colonize. 

What  the  Spaniards  wanted  was  a  coun 
try  where  there  was  plenty  of  gold,  silver, 
or  precious  stones  to  enrich  the  royal  trea 
sury,  and  plenty  of  easily  subdued  Indians 
to  be  converted  to  Christianity  and  turned 
into  slaves  for  their  Spanish  masters;  in 
short,  such  a  country  as  Cortez  conquered 
in  Mexico  and  Pizarro  in  Peru.  Where  there 
was  no  easily  portable  wealth  and  the  In 
dians  were  too  few  to  labor  and  too  fierce 
to  tame,  the  Spanish  conquest  stopped. 
There  was  no  gold  in  Texas,  and  the  sav 
age  Comanches  that  roamed  and  hunted  on 
its  prairies  were  no  meek  and  lowly  Mexican 
Indians.  So  Texas  and  all  North  America 
above  Florida  and  New  Mexico  were  left 
empty  of  Spaniards,  who  nevertheless  as 
serted  their  King's  title  to  all  the  New 
World  except  Brazil,  which  had  been  given 
to  Portugal  as  the  rest  of  the  three  Amer 
icas  had  been  given  to  Spain  by  the  Papal 
Bull  of  Alexander  VI,  in  1493. 

But  as  the  power  of  Spain  declined, 
various  other  nations  pushed  defiantly  into 


TEXAS  AND  KINGDOM'  OF  NEW  SPAIN 

the  vacant  spaces  of  North  America;  the 
English  in  Virginia  and  New  England,  the 
Butch  in  New  Amsterdam,  the  Swedes  in 
Delaware,  and  the  French  in  Canada.  Fol 
lowing  the  natural  pathway  of  the  St.  Law 
rence,  the  French  explorers  soon  came  to 
the  Great  Lakes,  whence  it  is  an  easy  port 
age  to  the  tributaries  of  the  Mississippi. 
The  banner  of  France  was  planted  at  the 
mouth  if  that  river  in  1682  by  Robert 
Cavelier  de  La  Salle,  the  first  white  man 
tf  descend  it  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Two 
years  later  La  Salle  set  sail  from  France 
with  a  small  fleet  for  the  mouth  of  the  Mis 
sissippi,  having  persuaded  Louis  XIV  of 
the  ease  and  value  of  founding  a  colony 
there.  But  contrary  winds  and  faulty 
navigation  carried  the  French  past  their 
destination  to  Matagorda  Bay,  where  they 
built  a  stockade  and  called  it  Fort  St. 
Louis.  This  was  the  first  European  settle 
ment  in  Texas. 

But  starvation,  disease,  and  hostile  In 
dians  killed  three-fourths  of  the  garrison  of 
Fort  St.  Louis,  and  when  La  Salle  tried  to 
return  overland  to  Canada  he  was  mur 
dered  by  his  own  men  in  Texas  in  1688. 

3 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

Fort  St.  Louis  was  destroyed  the  following 
year,  and  the  miserable  survivors  of  the 
unfortunate  French  colonists  were  yielded 
up  by  their  Indian  captors  to  a  Spanish 
expedition  that  carried  them  as  prisoners 
to  Mexico  City. 

This  attempt  to  found  a  French  colony 
on  Spanish  soil  was  greatly  resented  both 
in  Mexico  and  Madrid,  for  the  corner 
stone  of  the  Spanish  colonial  system  was 
the  absolute  exclusion  of  foreigners.  Even 
Spaniards  were  not  allowed  to  go  to  Amer 
ica  or  Spanish-Americans  from  one  colony 
to  another  without  elaborate  passports, 
most  difficult  to  obtain.  Trade  was  for 
bidden  between  the  different  colonies  or 
with  any  European  country  except  Spain. 
We  must  remember  that  the  Kingdom  of 
New  Spain,  as  the  Spaniards  called  Mexico, 
was  not  a  colony  of  European  settlers  and 
traders  inhabiting  a  space  cleared  of  hos 
tile  Indians,  like  Jamestown  or  Plymouth 
or  New  Amsterdam;  it  was  a  nation  of 
semicivilized  Indians,  with  only  enough 
Spanish  soldiers,  priests,  and  government 
officials  to  keep  them  subjugated  to  the 
King  of  Spain  and  instruct  them  in  the 

4 


TEXAS  AND   KINGDOM  OF  NEW  SPAIN 

Catholic  faith.  Instead  of  being  extermi 
nated  by  flintlock  and  fire-water  to  make 
room  for  a  new  race,  the  millions  of  Mexican 
Indians  simply  exchanged  the  tyranny  of 
the  Montezumas  for  the  tyranny  of  Spain, 
and  that  in  turn  for  the  tyranny  of  the  mili 
tary  chiefs  and  the  landowning  oligarchy  of 
modern  Mexico — a  tyranny  that  has  come 
down  essentially  unbroken  till  our  own  time. 
To  keep  the  French  out  of  Texas  the 
Spaniards  attempted  to  found  missions 
there.  Each  of  these  missions  was  a  per 
fect  miniature  of  the  whole  Spanish  colo 
nial  system.  A  few  courageous  friars,  some 
times  with,  oftener  without,  a  guard  of 
soldiers,  would  go  out  among  a  tribe  of 
pagan  Indians  to  convert  them  to  Chris 
tianity.  As  the  converts  increased  in  num 
ber,  they  would  build,  under  the  direction 
of  the  friars  and  priests  (many  of  whom 
were  skilled  architects  and  engineers),  a 
chapel  and  a  presidio  for  the  garrison,  round 
which  would  cluster  the  adobe  huts  of  the 
converts,  who  no  longer  lived  by  hunting, 
but  tilled  and  irrigated  their  own  and  their 
masters'  fields.  Presently  the  mission  would 
become  a  pueblo,  or  village,  and  the  chapel 

5 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

a  parish  church,  or  in  some  cases  the  cathe 
dral  of  a  new  city  on  the  broad  map  of  the 
Kingdom  of  New  Spain. 

But  the  Comanches  were  not  "Indios  de 
paz,"  peaceful  Indians  fit  to  labor  in  the 
Lord's  vineyard  and  the  friars'  fiel.d,  but 
"Indios  bravos,"  who  swept  down  on  and 
destroyed  the  last  trace  of  these  earliest 
Texan  missions  before  the  end  of  the  seven 
teenth  century. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  French  had  colon 
ized  Louisiana  and  founded  New  Orleans. 
Aware  that  any  attempt  to  open  a  coast 
wise  trade  with  Mexico  would  only  result 
in  the  capture  and  confiscation  of  the  first 
French  ship  to  venture  into  Vera  Cruz, 
Governor  Cadillac  of  Louisiana  sent  some 
French-Canadians  across  Texas  to  the 
nearest  Spanish  post  on  the  Rio  Grande  in 
1714  to  see  if  it  would  be  possible  to  start 
an  overland  cattle  trade  between  the  two 
colonies.  But  the  Spaniards  threw  the 
French  emissaries  into  prison  and  founded 
new  missions  in  Texas,  some  of  them  close 
to  the  French  frontier  settlement  of  Natch- 
itoches  on  the  Red  River. 

No  further  attempts  were  made  by  the 
6 


The  Kingdom  of  New  Spain. 


TEXAS  AND  KINGDOM  OF  NEW  SPAIN 

French  to  dispute  the  Spanish  possession 
of  Texas  beyond  a  few  futile  raids  during 
the  brief  Franco-Spanish  War  of  1719.  A 
neighborly  understanding  grew  up  between 
the  border  settlements  of  the  two  colonies. 
The  irksome  prohibition  of  foreign  trade 
bore  lightly  on  these  distant  colonists  of 
Spain.  Indeed,  as  Bancroft  declares:  "Con 
traband  trade  with  the  French  seems  to 
have  been  the  occupation  of  all  classes  on 
the  frontier,  including  the  governor  and 
perhaps  even  the  friars." 

In  1762  the  Seven  Years'  War  and  the 
empire  of  France  in  North  America  came 
to  an  end  together.  England  had  con 
quered  Canada  and  now  received  Florida 
from  Spain,  and  from  France  all  Louisiana 
east  of  the  Mississippi  except  the  "Island 
of  New  Orleans."  That  and  Louisiana 
west  of  the  river  went  to  Spain. 

In  1800,  by  the  Treaty  of  San  Ildefonso, 
Spain  returned  Louisiana  to  France.  Three 
years  later  France  sold  Louisiana  to  the 
United  States.  Immediately  the  question 
arose,  Was  Texas  included  in  the  Louisiana 
Purchase  ? 

Napoleon's  government  assured  our  com- 
7 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

missioners  to  Paris  that  such  was  the  case; 
that  the  western  boundary  of  French  Louisi 
ana  had  been  not  the  Red  River  but  the 
Rio  Grande  del  Norte.  But  this  claim  was 
based  solely  on  La  Salle's  brief  occupation 
of  Fort  St.  Louis,  one  hundred  and  nineteen 
years  before,  which  was  more  than  counter 
balanced  by  the  previous  exploration  and 
subsequent  occupation  of  Texas  by  Spain. 
But  because  of  these  French  pretensions 
and  because  they  had  heard  much  of  La 
Salle  but  little  of  Alvarez  de  Pineda  or  the 
missions  founded  by  the  Franciscan  friars, 
very  many  Americans,  including  Henry 
Clay  and  other  leaders  of  public  opinion, 
thought  that  Texas  had  been  part  of  French 
Louisiana  and  so  belonged  to  us.  A  gen 
eration  later  this  mistaken  belief  did  much 
to  bring  about  our  annexation  of  Texas  and 
first  war  with  Mexico. 

President  Monroe,  who  had  been  one  of 
the  American  commissioners  sent  to  Paris 
to  arrange  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  had  the 
matter  thoroughly  investigated  when  he 
negotiated  the  Florida  Treaty  with  Spain 
in  1819.  By  this  treaty  the  United  States 
agreed  to  assume  $5,000,000  worth  of  un- 

8 


TEXAS  AND  KINGDOM  OF  NEW  SPAIN 

collectible  claims  of  American  citizens 
against  the  Spanish  crown  in  exchange  for 
Florida,  which  Spain  had  taken  from  Great 
Britain  during  our  Revolutionary  War. 
And  the  United  States  renounced  forever 
all  "rights,  claims,  and  pretensions"  to 
Texas  based  on  the  Louisiana  Purchase. 

The  Florida  Treaty  was  ratified  by  our 
Senate  after  a  debate  of  two  days;  by  the 
Spanish  Government  after  a  delay  of  two 
years.  On  February  22^.1821,  the  treaty 
was  signed  in  Washington,.  The  southern 
boundary  of  the  United  States  was  fixed 
at  the  Sabine  River  and  thence  westward 
to  the  Pacific,  as  shown  by  the  map  facing 
p.  6.  The  vexatious  Texas  question  was 
declared  to  be  finally  settled  and  a  lasting 
boundary  established  between  the  United 
States  and  the  Kingdom  of  New  Spain, 

Forty-eight  hours  later  General  Iturbide 
proclaimed  the  independence  of  Mexico 
and  the  end  of  the  Kingdom  of  New  Spain. 


CHAPTER  II 

;THE  MEXICAN  WAR  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

EVERY  year  on  the  i6th  of  Septem 
ber  the  President  of  Mexico  appears 
on  the  balcony  in  front  of  the  National 
Palace  and,  while  the  great  crowd  that 
throngs  the  Cathedral  Plaza  keep  perfect 
silence  that  all  may  hear,  the  chief  magis 
trate  of  the  republic  tolls  an  ancient  church- 
bell — the  liberty  bell  of  Mexico.  By  that 
bell,  when  it  hung  in  the  belfry  of  the 
parish  church  of  the  little  village  of  Dolores 
not  far  from  the  city  of  Guanajuato,  the 
priest  Hidalgo  called  his  people  together 
on  Sunday,  September  16,  1810,  and  urged 
them  to  revolt  with  the  famous  "Grito 
de  Dolores,"  or  "Cry  of  Dolores":  "Down 
with  the  wicked  government !  Down  with 
tyranny!" 

Mexico  and  the  other  Spanish  colonies 
had  already  refused  two  years  before  \ to 
recognize  Joseph  Bonaparte,  who  had  been 
forcibly  placed  on  the  throne  of  Spain  by 

10 


MEXICAN  WAR  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

his  brother  Napoleon.  Ferdinand  VII,  the 
rightful  but  worthless  King  of  Spain,  was 
in  a  French  prison,  and  to  him  the  heads 
of  the  army  and  church  in  Mexico  swore 
allegiance,  choosing  in  the  meanwhile  a 
viceroy  from  among  their  own  number. 
But  this  separation  from  the  mother  coun 
try,  formal  and  temporary  as  it  was  meant 
to  be,  stirred  the  deep-rooted  hatred  of 
Spain  and  Spaniards  in  the  hearts  of  the 
Indians,  mixed-bloods,  and  even  the  Creoles 
—persons  of  pure  Spanish  descent  who,  be 
cause  they  were  colonial-born,  were  forbid 
den  to  hold  office  and  were  in  every  way 
discriminated  against  in  favor  of  the  penin 
sular-born  Spaniard. 

The  Cry  of  Dolores  met  with  a  wide 
spread  and  prompt  response.  A  rapidly  in 
creasing  army  assembled  under  the  leader 
ship  of  Hidalgo  and  the  banner  of  Our 
Lady  of  Guadalupe.*  The  cities  of  Guana 
juato,  Guadalajara,  San  Bias,  Zacatecas, 
San  Luis  Potosi,  and  many  smaller  places 
were  captured  by  the  insurgents,  whose 
number  swelled  at  one  time  to  as  many  as 

*  A  shrine,  much  reverenced  throughout  Mexico,  near  Mexico 
City. 

II 


OUR  FIRST  WAR   IN  MEXICO 

eighty  thousand  men,  mostly  ignorant  and 
untrained  Indian  laborers.  Hidalgo  and 
his  peasant  army  were  ultimately  defeated 
and  dispersed  by  one-tenth  their  number 
of  well-drilled  and  well-handled  Spanish 
troops  at  the  Bridge  of  Calderon,  June  17, 
1811.  Hidalgo  and  his  principal  officers 
were  soon  captured  and  promptly  shot. 

For  ten  terrible  years  thereafter  the 
War  of  Independence  dragged  on,  no  longer 
fought  in  the  open  field  but  by  bands  of 
guerillas,  who  too  often  degenerated  into 
brigands.  The  Spanish  troops  held  only 
the  large  cities  and  as  much  ground  as 
their  regiments  covered  on  the  march. 
The  country  was  burned  and  pillaged  by 
both  sides,  farms  and  villages  depopulated, 
live  stock  slaughtered  or  driven  off,  the 
mines  shut  down  while  the  flooded  shafts 
caved  in  and  the  miners  starved  or  went 
a-soldiering.  Conditions  in  Mexico  then 
were  almost  exactly  like  those  in  Cuba 
immediately  before  the  Spanish-American 
War  or  in  Mexico  itself  a  hundred  years 
later,  after  the  downfall  of  Porfirio  Diaz. 

The  restoration  of  Ferdinand  VII  after 
the  overthrow  of  Napoleon  led  to  a  deter- 

12 


MEXICAN  WAR  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

mined  effort  on  the  part  of  the  Spanish 
Government  to  put  down  the  revolts  not 
only  in  Mexico  but  throughout  Central  and 
South  America.  But  the  expeditionary 
army  that  was  assembled  at  Cadiz  to  be 
sent  to  the  colonies  suddenly  mutinied 
under  the  leadership  of  Riego,  and  though 
their  first  leader  was  defeated  and  shot,  the 
mutineers  were  soon  joined  by  the  greater 
part  of  the  country.  Much  against  his  will, 
the  reactionary  Ferdinand  VII  was  forced 
to  restore  and  swear  to  uphold  the  liberal 
Constitution  of  1812,  which  had  been  es 
tablished  by  the  provisional  government 
during  his  captivity  and  promptly  abolished 
after  his  restoration. 

The  Spanish  Cortes,  or  Parliament,  was 
convened,  and,  according  to  the  re-estab 
lished  Constitution,  Mexico  would  have 
been  entitled  to  thirty-seven  representa 
tives.  But  none  were  ever  chosen. 

Almost  the  first  action  of  the  Spanish 
Cortes  of  1820  was  to  reduce  the  oppres 
sively  heavy  taxes  paid  by  the  people  and 
make  up  the  deficit  by  confiscating  part  of 
the  enormous  wealth  of  the  church.  The 
news  of  this  and  the  danger  to  their  own 

13 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

church  property  so  alarmed  the  Mexican 
prelates  that  they  promptly  plotted  with 
General  Iturbide  for  the  separation  of  New 
from  Old  Spain.  The  result  of  this  clerico- 
military  conspiracy  was  the  proclamation 
of  the  independence  of  Mexico  in  the 
"Plan  of  Iguala,"  February  24,  1821. 

The  church  and  the  army  between  them 
had  been  the  real  rulers  of  Mexico  from 
the  beginning,  and  without  them  the  royal 
authority  had  not  a  leg  left  to  stand  on. 
Though  the  King's  flag  still  flew  from  the 
Castle  of  San  Juan  de  Ulloa  at  Vera  Cruz, 
the  latest  and  last  of  the  viceroys  of  Mex 
ico,  the  Celto-Iberian  O'Donoju,  was  un 
able  to  set  foot  in  the  city  itself  when  he 
arrived  from  Spain.  Going  inland  under  a 
safe-conduct,  O'Donoju  met  Iturbide  and 
the  two  signed  the  so-called  Treaty  of  Cor 
dova,  August  21,  1821.  By  this  treaty, 
which  the  Spanish  Government  refused  to 
ratify,  the  Kingdom  of  New  Spain  was 
recognized  as  an  independent  constitutional 
monarchy  to  be  called  "The  Mexican  Em 
pire."  The  new  imperial  crown  was  to  be 
offered  to  each  male  member  of  the  Spanish 
royal  family  in  succession,  and  if  they  all 


MEXICAN  WAR  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

refused  it  the  Mexican  Cortes  was  to  choose 
the  Emperor. 

This  programme  was  duly  followed  out, 
and,  with  the  aid  of  a  prearranged  military 
uprising  near  the  Cortes  at  the  psycholog 
ical  moment,  Iturbide  was  elected  and 
crowned  as  Augustin  I,  Emperor  of  Mexico. 
His  reign  was  shorter  in  point  of  time  but 
no  less  tragic  in  termination  than  either 
that  of  his  predecessor,  Montezuma,  or  his 
successor,  Maximilian.  The  army  had  no 
use  for  Iturbide,  and  after  ten  months  of 
his  harsh  but  feeble  reign  his  own  soldiers 
forced  his  abdication  on  March  19,  1822. 
He  was  allowed  to  go  to  Europe,  with  the 
understanding  that  he  was  never  to  re 
turn.  But  less  than  two  years  afterward 
the  outbreak  of  fresh  revolutions  tempted 
Iturbide  back  to  Mexico.  Landing  at  Tam- 
pico  with  a  few  followers,  the  ex-Emperor 
was  promptly  arrested,  court-martialled, 
and  shot.  His  great-grandson,  General 
Eduardo  Iturbide,  was  for  a  few  weeks  in 
1914  the  governor  of  the  federal  district 
about  Mexico  City,  before  he  was  forced 
to  become  an  exile  in  the  United  States. 

A  constituent  congress  was  assembled  to 
15 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

devise  a  republican  form  of  government 
for  Mexico,  and  the  result  of  its  some 
what  hasty  labors  was  the  Constitution  of 
1824,  an  instrument  "curiously  compounded 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
— omitting  the  first  ten  amendments — 
and  the  Spanish  (Cadiz)  Constitution  of 
1812."* 

The  executive  and  legislative  branches 
of  the  new  government  were  closely  pat 
terned  after  those  of  the  "Anglo-Americans 
of  the  North/'  There  was  to  be  a  Presi 
dent,  elected  every  four  years  and  with  a 
suspensive  power  of  veto;  a  Senate,  with 
two  members  from  each  state,  and  a  House 
of  Deputies,  with  one  member  for  every 
eighty  thousand  inhabitants.  But  the  third 
branch  of  the  government,  the  judiciary, 
was  much  weaker  than  with  us ;  for,  instead 
of  leaving  to  the  Supreme  Court  the  inter 
pretation  of  the  Constitution  (the  corner 
stone  on  which  Chief  Justice  Marshall  and 
his  successors  were  to  build  up  the  mighty 
power  of  our  Federal  courts),  the  Mexicans 
decided  that  their  Congress  alone  had  the 
right  to  "resolve  doubts  which  may  occur 

*  Rives,  I,  42. 
16 


MEXICAN  WAR  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

about  the  meaning  of  the  articles  of  this 
Constitution/' 

The  most  striking  difference  between 
ours  and  the  Mexican  Constitution  of  1824 
was  the  establishment  by  the  latter  of  a 
state  religion  and  the  spirit  of  religious  in 
tolerance.  The  very  first  article,  trans 
lated,  reads  as  follows: 

"The  religion  of  the  Mexican  nation  is 
and  shall  be  the  Catholic,  apostolic,  Roman 
(faith).  The  nation  is  to  protect  it  by  wise 
and  just  laws,  and  prohibit  the  exercise  of 
any  other." 

This  clause,  moreover,  so  it  was  declared, 
was  never  to  be  amended. 

Nothing  was  said  about  negro  slavery, 
but  the  slave-trade  had  been  abolished  by 
statute  a  few  months  before.  Negroes  were 
very  rare  in  Mexico,  enslaved  or  free,  be 
cause  of  the  abundance  of  cheap  Indian 
labor.  Though  Indian  slavery  had  been 
abolished  in  early  colonial  times,  a  great 
part  of  the  poor  people  of  Mexico  were 
peons — workmen  who  had  become  indebted 
to  their  masters  for  money  advanced  ori 
exorbitant  interest  and  who  spent  the  rest 
of  their  lives  working  for  their  creditors, 

17 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

who  found  it  both  easy  and  profitable  to 
keep  the  ignorant,  pleasure-loving  peons  in 
perpetual  debt.  This  peonage  was  prac 
tically  slavery,  but  nothing  was  said  about 
it  in  the  Constitution  of  1824. 

The  most  obvious  weakness  of  the  new 
republic  was  its  artificial  federalism.  Like 
every  other  Spanish-American  country  at 
the  time,  Mexico  enthusiastically  copied 
many  features  of  the  government  of  the 
United  States  of  America.  But,  unlike  the 
thirteen  British  colonies,  the  Kingdom  of 
New  Spain  had  always  been  a  single  ad 
ministrative  unit,  with  a  strong  centralized 
government  in  a  great  capital  city  that 
dominated  the  rest  of  Mexico  as  Paris 
dominates  France.  The  logical  develop 
ment  after  the  War  of  Independence  would 
have  been  a  centralized  republic,  which 
many  Mexicans  desired.  But  the  majority 
of  the  constituent  congress,  admiring  the 
form  of  the  American  Union  but  ignoring 
the  fact  of  Mexican  unity,  carved  their 
country  up  into  states,  none  of  which  had 
had  any  previous  separate  existence.  Texas 
and  Coahuila  together  made  one  huge, 
sparsely  populated  state. 

18 


MEXICAN  WAR  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

Hundreds  of  Americans,  eager  for  ad 
venture,  had  fought  in  Texas  during  the 
War  of  Independence  on  the  side  of  the 
insurgents  against  Spain.  These  American 
filibusters  played  an  important  part  in  the 
capture  of  the  two  principal  Texas  towns, 
La  Bahia  (Goliad)  and  San  Antonio  de 
Bexar.  They  protested  vehemently  against 
the  proposed  execution  in  cold  blood  of  two 
captured  Spanish  governors  and  twelve  of 
their  officers,  and  many  of  the  Americans 
left  in  disgust  when  their  Mexican  allies, 
after  promising  to  have  these  prisoners  sent 
safely  home  to  Spain,  had  the  Spaniards' 
throats  cut  by  their  own  escort.  Yet  no 
less  than  eight  hundred  and  fifty  Americans 
fought  on  the  Mexican  side  in  the  disas 
trous  defeat  near  San  Antonio  that  led  to 
the  recapture  of  all  the  towns,  followed  by 
savage  reprisals  on  the  part  of  the  Spanish 
troops. 

Guerilla  warfare  was  waged  in  Texas  not 
only  by  land  but  by  sea.  Jean  Lafitte,  the 
famous  "Pirate  of  the  Gulf,"  whose  men 
had  served  Andrew  Jackson's  field-guns  at 
the  battle  of  New  Orleans,  seized  the  island 
of  Galveston  as  a  headquarters  for  his  fleet 

19 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

of  privateers,  sailing  under  the  Mexican 
and  various  South  American  flags.  Because 
it  captured  too  many  ships  of  neutral 
nations  and  was  indeed  little  better  than  a 
nest  of  pirates,  Lafitte's  colony  was  broken 
up  in  1821  by  the  United  States  brig  Enter 
prise. 

Another  picturesque  and  premature  at 
tempt  to  found  an  American  colony  in 
Texas  was  made  by  James  Long,  who  had 
been  a  surgeon  in  the  United  States  Army. 
With  three  hundred  of  his  countrymen 
Long  actually  set  up  and  proclaimed  an 
independent  "Republic  of  Texas,"  with  a 
complete  civil  government  and  even  a 
newspaper.  But  within  four  months  after 
its  foundation,  in  1821,  Long's  republic 
was  broken  up  and  dispersed  by  a  detach 
ment  of  Spanish  troops.  When  the  last 
Spanish  soldier  withdrew  from  Texas  the 
country  was  almost  as  devoid  of  white  in 
habitants  as  it  had  been  at  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  or  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century. 

"By  the  time  that  Mexican  independence 
was  fairly  achieved,"  says  Mr.  Rives, 
"Texas  was  almost  depopulated.  The 

20 


MEXICAN  WAR  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

Spanish  troops  and  the  horse  Indians  be 
tween  them  had  very  nearly  succeeded  in 
destroying  every  semblance  of  cultivated 
and  civilized  life.  A  few  destitute  people 
still  lingered  about  Bexar  (San  Antonio) 
and  La  Bahia  (Goliad)  and  some  few  in 
and  near  what  had  once  been  Nacog- 
doches.  Otherwise  the  country  was  de 
serted.  Its  wide  and  fertile  expanse  lay  in 
the  sight  of  all  men,  a  huge  and  tempting 
prize  for  whosoever,  Mexican  or  foreigner, 
was  skilful  enough  or  bold  enough  to  take 
it." 


21 


CHAPTER  III 
MIGRATION  OF  AMERICANS  TO  TEXAS 

MOSES  AUSTIN  was  a  Connecticut 
Yankee  with  a  roving  foot  that 
carried  him  across  even  the  sacred  border 
of  the  Kingdom  of  New  Spain.  But  in 
Louisiana,  where  Austin  first  settled  in 
1798,  the  exclusion  of  foreigners  had  never 
been  as  absolute  as  in  the  other  Spanish 
colonies,  for  Louisiana  had  originally  been 
French  and  many  Frenchmen  remained 
there  after  1762.  Besides,  the  whole  east 
bank  of  the  Mississippi  above  New  Orleans 
was  British  territory.  English  ships  had 
the  right  to  navigate  the  river  even  to  its 
source,  and  soon  after  the  Revolution 
Yankee  flatboatmen  floated  down-stream 
and  Yankee  trappers  and  traders  drifted 
overland  in  constantly  increasing  numbers. 
Though  these  intruders  were  not  always 
welcome,  the  Spanish  authorities  in  Louisi 
ana  could  not  keep  them  out,  and  toward 
the  end  actually  granted  tracts  of  land  to 

22 


MIGRATION  OF  AMERICANS  TO  TEXAS 

settlers  from  the  United  States,  such  as 
Moses  Austin.  And  when,  after  twenty 
years'  residence  in  what  is  now  the  State  of 
Missouri,  Austin  found  himself  back  in  the 
Union  and  in  need  of  money,  he  naturally 
migrated  again,  this  time  to  Texas. 

Riding  across  the  empty  prairies  to  San 
Antonio  de  Bexar,  Austin  asked  Governor 
Martinez  for  a  tract  of  land  on  which  to 
settle  three  hundred  families  from  Louisi 
ana.  Martinez,  who  at  first  angrily  ordered 
Austin  out  of  the  country,  joined  with  the 
ayuntamitnto,  or  town  council,  in  a  petition 
to  the  authorities  at  Mexico  City  to  grant 
Austin's  request.  With  this  grant  in  his 
pocket  and  his  life-work  done,  Austin  re 
turned  to  Missouri  and  died  there  June 
10,  1821,  in  the  fifty-seventh  year  of  his 
age.  The  city  of  Austin,  the  capital  of 
Texas,  commemorates  his  name  and  that 
of  his  son,  Stephen  Fuller  Austin,  who 
carried  on  his  work. 

"The  glorious  news  of  the  independence 
of  Mexico"  greeted  young  Austin  as  he 
rode  into  Bexar,  and  sent  him  post-haste  to 
Mexico  City.  Scarcely  had  the  Emperor 
Iturbide  affirmed  the  viceroy's  grant  to  the 
23 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

Austins  by  the  Imperial  Colonization  Act 
of  1823  than  the  Mexican  Empire  ended  its 
short  life,  and  the  work  had  to  be  done  over 
again  with  the  republican  authorities.  But 
by  the  National  Colonization  Act  of  1824 
Austin  finally  obtained  the  fullest  powers. 

As  an  empresario,  or  contractor,  with  the 
government  who  undertook  to  settle  two 
hundred  or  more  families  in  Texas,  Austin 
was  to  receive  a  certain  amount  of  public 
land  for  himself.  Every  settler  was  to  be 
given  either  a  177-acre  farm  or  a  cattle 
range  of  over  4,000  acres.  All  colonists 
were  to  be  exempt  for  six  years,  not  only 
from  ordinary  taxation  but  from  the  Mex 
ican  tariff,  which  prohibited  the  importa 
tion  of  many  necessities  and  placed  a  very 
high  duty  on  most  of  the  rest — an  unin 
telligent  relic  of  the  Spanish  colonial  sys 
tem.  Except  for  this  exemption,  it  would 
have  been  impossible  for  the  Texan  colo 
nists  to  have  procured  ploughs,  clothing,  or 
provisions  without  wholesale  smuggling,  for 
almost  nothing  was  then  manufactured  in 
Mexico  and  the  lack  of  roads  made  food 
stuffs  scarce  and  dear. 

Another  important  exemption  was  the 
24 


MIGRATION  OF  AMERICANS  TO  TEXAS 

suspension,  as  far  as  concerned  Texas,  of 
the  law  abolishing  negro  slavery.  Austin 
insisted  on  this  because,  though  he  himself 
was  opposed  to  slavery  on  principle,  he  fore 
saw  that  most  of  his  colonists  would  be 
Southerners;  also,  he  believed  that  the  fu 
ture  wealth  of  Texas  lay  in  the  cultivation 
of  cotton,  then  thought  impossible  without 
forced  negro  labor.  Immigrants  were  there 
fore  permitted  to  bring  their  own  slaves 
with  them,  but  these  negroes  were  not  to 
be  resold  and  their  children  were  to  be  born 
free. 

The  only  things  required  of  white  im 
migrants  into  Texas  were:  first,  that  they 
should  be  Roman  Catholics;  second,  that 
they  should  show  a  certificate  of  good  char 
acter  from  their  home  authorities;  and, 
finally,  that  they  take  the  oath  of  allegi 
ance  to  Mexico.  No  provision  was  made 
for  stopping  undesirable  immigrants  at  the 
frontier  or  for  the  trial  and  deportation  of 
any  unlawful  residents.  The  Federal  Gov 
ernment  of  Mexico  simply  left  it  all  to 
Austin  and  washed  its  hands  of  Texas  for 
the  next  six  years. 

The  Mexicans  seem  to  have  thought  that 
25 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

because  the  Austins  had  come  from  Louisi 
ana  the  settlers  they  proposed  to  bring 
into  Texas  would  be  from  there  also,  of 
Latin  blood  and  the  Catholic  faith.  But 
those  who  came  were  typical  American 
frontiersmen  of  the  period,  who  knew  little 
of  any  church  and  least  of  all  the  Roman 
Catholic.  Otherwise,  they  were  ideal  colo 
nists  from  Austin's  point  of  view,  and  he 
naturally  let  down  the  bars. 

"I  wish  the  settlers  to  remember,"  he 
declared  in  a  public  address,  "that  the 
Roman  Catholic  is  the  religion  of  this  na 
tion.  .  .  .  We  must  all  be  particular  and 
respect  the  Catholic  religion."  But  noth 
ing  was  said  about  its  being  obligatory. 

The  religious  qualification  being  ignored 
so  calmly,  the  other  two  were  very  easily 
met.  The  certificate  of  good  character  the 
settler  was  supposed  to  bring  with  him  from 
his  home  authorities  was  usually  obtained 
after  his  arrival  in  Texas  from  the  nearest 
alcalde  or  petty  magistrate,  "on  the  testi 
mony  of  two  bystanders  and  the  payment 
of  a  dollar  and  a  half."*  As  for  the  oath  of 
allegiance,  it  was  easy  to  take  but  difficult 

*  Kennedy's  "Texas,"  I,  339. 
26 


MIGRATION  OF  AMERICANS  TO  TEXAS 

for  a  feeble  government  in  far-away  Mexico 
City  to  enforce. 

Settlers  poured  in  rapidly.  Eight  new 
empresarios  were  given  contracts  by  the 
State  of  Coahuila,  to  whom  the  public 
lands  had  been  turned  over  by  the  federal 
authorities,  and  these  contractors  are  said 
to  have  brought  in  some  three  thousand 
families.  Two  of  these  colonies  were  Irish 
and  there  were  many  Germans,  but  these 
elements  soon  amalgamated  with  the  na 
tive-born  Americans,  exactly  as  in  the 
rnited  States.  Thousands  of  other  im- 
ugrants  came  over  the  border  of  their  own 
iccord,  and  squatted  on  the  first  vacant 
>ite  that  struck  their  fancy.  Their  "right 
:here  was  none  to  dispute." 

Entirely  neglected  by  the  Mexican  Gov 
ernment,  the  American  settlers  in  -Texas 
shifted  for  themselves  and  flourished  ex 
ceedingly.  They  laid  out  the  rough  trails 
over  which  men  brought  their  families  and 
chattels,  at  first  on  horse  and  mule  back, 
later  in  wagons,  overland  from  Natchi- 
toches  in  Louisiana,  or  up  from  Galveston 
Bay  and  the  other  ports  where  the  sailing- 
vessels  came  from  New  Orleans  or  New 

27 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

York.  These  Anglo-Saxon  colonists  needed 
no  friar  architects  to  design  their  log  cabins 
for  them  or  troops  to  defend  them  agairet 
the  Comanches.  They  paid  no  taxes  and 
received  nothing  in  return.  The  earlier 
mission  schools  having  greatly  decayed,  the 
Texans  established  rude  ones  of  their  own 
wherever  a  few  children  could  be  gathered 
together  and  an  itinerant  teacher  found  to 
instruct  them.  Towns  and  villages  arose, 
with  American  officials  bearing  Spanish 
titles,  American  general  stores  well  stocked 
with  goods  from  the  United  States,  Amer 
ican  lawyers,  doctors,  and.  of  course,  Amer 
ican  newspapers. 

While  the  Mexican  population  of  Texas 
remained  nearly  stationary,  the  number  of 
Americans  doubled  every  few  years.  In 
1825  there  were  about  7,000  people  in  Texas, 
almost  equally  divided  between  the  two 
races;  two  years  later  the  population  had 
risen  to  10,000  and  the  Americans  outnum 
bered  the  Mexicans  by  5  to  3.  By  1830 
there  were  something  like  20,000  Americans 
in  Texas,  including  1,000  negro  slaves. 
That  these  were  not  more  numerous  was 
because  Texas  had  become  a  country  of 

28 


MIGRATION  OF  AMERICANS  TO  TEXAS 

small  farms  and  ranches  instead  of  large 
cotton  plantations  as  Austin  had  expected. 
A  Coahuila  state  statute  forbidding  slavery 
had  been  avoided  by  bringing  negroes  in 
as  peons,  and  when  President  Guerrero's 
government  passed  a  national  emancipa 
tion  act  in  1829  the  resentment  of  the 
Texans  was  so  great  that  Texas,  which  had 
the  only  slaves  in  Mexico,  was  specially 
exempted. 

This  defiance  of  the  national  authority 
and  the  menace  to  Mexico  of  the  strong 
foreign  colony  that  had  grown  up  within  its 
borders  were  keenly  felt  by  the  new  secre 
tary  of  foreign  affairs  who  now  took  office 
under  President  Bustamante,  Don  Lucas 
Ignacio  Alaman.  A  well-educated  man  and 
author  of  a  valuable  history  of  his  own 
country,  Alaman  had  a  strangely  distorted 
idea  of  the  government  and  history  of  the 
United  States.  Disregarding  the  limited 
powers  of  our  Federal  Government  and  the 
varying  policies  of  different  parties  and  ad 
ministrations,  Alaman  believed  that  from 
the  foundation  of  our  Republic  the  Amer 
ican  people  had  systematically  conspired  to 
make  themselves  masters  of  the  entire 

29 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

Western  hemisphere.  With  this  end  in 
view,  he  declared  the  authorities  at  Wash 
ington  had  secretly  promoted  the  coloni 
zation  of  Texas  with  Americans  who,  when 
they  were  strong  enough,  would  declare 
their  independence  as  a  preliminary  to 
being  taken  into  the  Union. 

But  we  know  that  Moses  Austin  left 
Louisiana  for  Texas  not  to  extend  the 
boundaries  of  the  United  States  but  to  get 
outside  them.  He  received  no  more  aid 
from  the  Federal  Government  than  would 
Ichabod  Crane  have  received  from  the  se 
lectmen  of  Sleepy  Hollow  had  he  realized 
his  vision  of  "the  blooming  Katrina,  with 
a  whole  family  of  children,  mounted  on 
the  top  of  a  wagon  loaded  with  household 
trumpery,  with  pots  and  kettles  dangling 
beneath  and  .  .  .  himself  bestriding  a  pac 
ing  mare  with  a  colt  at  her  heels,  setting 
out  for  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  or  the  Lord 
knows  where."  The  lure  of  "  immense 
tracts  of  wild  land  and  shingle  palaces  in 
the  wilderness"  set  the  laziest  Anglo-Saxon 
a-roving  without  help  or  hinderance  from 
the  authorities  he  left  behind  him.  But 
such  initiative  on  the  part  of  the  individual 

30 


MIGRATION  OF  AMERICANS  TO  TEXAS 

and  indifference  on  the  part  of  his  govern 
ment  were  totally  incomprehensible  to  the 
Spanish-American  of  the  early  nineteenth 
century,  bred  in  the  paternal  colonial  sys 
tem  of  Spain.  The  measures  that  Alaman 
now  took  for  curbing  the  Americans  iri 
Texas  were  typical  of  that  system. 

Troops  were  to  be  sent  into  Texas  to 
overawe  the  colonists  and  enforce  respect 
for  the  authority  of  Mexico.  No  more 
slaves  were  to  enter  the  country,  nor  any 
more  foreigners  without  proper  passports. 
The  Colonization  Act  of  1824  was  repealed, 
the  Federal  Government  took  charge  of  the 
public  lands  again  and  made  every  effort 
to  create  settlements  of  native  Mexicans 
thereon.  But  free  Mexican  citizens  re 
fused  to  go  to  Texas  on  any  terms,  and  the 
wretched  convicts  who  were  sent  there  in 
chains  and  at  great  expense  soon  ran  away 
or  were  killed  by  the  Indians.  In  spite  of 
everything,  Texas  became  more  American 
and  less  Mexican  every  day. 

The  privilege  of  free  trade  that  the  colo 
nists  had  enjoyed  since  1823  was  now  de 
clared  at  an  end,  and  the  Mexican  tariff, 
which  absolutely  prohibited  the  importa- 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

tion  of  many  necessary  articles  and  placed 
a  very  high  duty  on  almost  everything  else, 
was  now,  with  certain  exceptions,  to  be  ap 
plied  to  Texas.  This  impossible  combina 
tion  of  a  protective  tariff  with  an  almost 
utter  lack  of  home  industries  was  a  direct 
legacy  from  colonial  Spain,  and  a  scholar 
and  statesman  like  Senor  Alaman  might 
well  have  paused  before  reviving  it.  He 
should  have  remembered  how  the  dearth  of 
Spanish  goods  had  forced  the  Spanish  colo 
nists  from  Texas  to  Peru  either  to  do  with 
out  or  to  trade  with  foreign  smugglers  (see 
page  4).  He  should  have  remembered  the 
tragic  results  of  the  spasmodic  attempts  of 
the  Spanish  authorities  to  stop  this  smug 
gling  by  savage  attacks  on  the  free-traders 
— the  blazing  cities  and  sunken  galleons 
that  paid  for  the  treacherous  destruction  of 
Francis  Drake's  and  John  Hawkins's  trad 
ing  fleet  in  the  harbor  of  Vera  Cruz;  the 
sack  of  Panama  by  the  buccaneers  after 
they  had  been  forbidden  by  the  Spaniards 
to  hunt  the  wild  cattle  of  the  West  Indian 
islands  and  so  turned  to  Spaniard-hunting; 
and  the  War  of  Jenkins's  Ear.  He  should 
have  realized  that  the  American-born  Tex- 

32 


MIGRATION  OF  AMERICANS  TO  TEXAS 

ans  and  the  coastwise  skippers  who  sup 
plied  their  wants  were  of  the  same  righting 
stock  as  Drake  and  the  buccaneers,  and  that 
when  the  Texans  needed  new  ploughs,  which 
they  could  not  buy  in  Mexico  and  were  for 
bidden  to  import  from  the  United  States, 
it  would  take  more  than  a  few  hundred 
half-breed  Mexican  conscripts  scattered 
along  the  coast  to  suspend  the  law  of  sup 
ply  and  demand. 

The  climax  came  when  Colonel  Brad- 
burn,  the  Kentucky-born  commander  of  the 
Mexican  post  at  Anahuac  on  Galveston 
Bay  lost  his  temper  after  two  years  of  con 
stant  bickerings,  and  in  May,  1833,  ar 
rested  and  imprisoned  without  warrant 
seven  prominent  Texans  to  overawe  the 
smugglers  and  their  sympathizers.  Instead, 
the  neighborhood  rose,  besieged  the  fort, 
and  sent  to  Brazoria  for  two  cannon  with 
which  the  trading  schooner  Sabine  had  been 
bidding  equal  defiance  to  custom-house 
officers  and  soldiers.  The  only  way  to  bring 
the  guns  from  Brazoria  to  Anahuac  was  by 
sea,  and  this  the  commander  of  the  little 
Mexican  post  at  Velasco,  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Sabine,  very  properly  refused  to  per- 

33 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

mit.  So  the  Texans  turned  the  two  guns 
on  Velasco  and  bombarded  and  captured  the 
fort,  with  a  loss  of  several  lives  on  both 
sides.  This  affair  was  regarded  as  a  pre 
liminary  to  an  assault  on  Armhuac  and 
civil  war  seemed  unavoidable. 

Then  suddenly  the  Anahuac  prisoners 
were  released  without  a  fight,  Colonel  Brad- 
burn  went  home  to  Kentucky,  and  the 
Mexican  garrisons  were  withdrawn  from 
every  post  in  Texas  except  Bexar.  A  new 
revolution  had  broken  out  in  Mexico;  Bus- 
tamante  was  no  longer  President  nor  Sefior 
Alaman  Secretary  of  Foreign  Affairs.  There 
was  a  new  President  in  Mexico  City,  the 
victorious  and  popular  young  General 
Santa  Anna. 


34 


CHAPTER  IV 
"REMEMBER  THE  ALAMO!" 

ANTONIO  LOPEZ  DE  SANTA  ANNA 
was  born  in  the  city  of  Jalapa  on 
February  21,  1795,  of  sufficiently  gentle 
blood  to  be  given  ~a  cadetship  in  the  royal 
army  at  the  age  of  fifteen.  The  outbreak 
of  the  War^of  Independence  found  him 
fighting  in  the  royalist  ranks,  where  he  re 
mained  to  the  end,  by  which  time  he  was  a 
lieutenant-colonel.  He  was  a  "Tory"  of 
the  deepest  dye,  and  it  was  no  love  of  na 
tional  liberty  but  a  shrewd  desire  to  keep 
onT:he  side  of  the  army  and  the  church  that 
made  him  hasten  to  join  Iturbide  after  the 
proclamation  of  the  Plan  of  Iguala. 

Santa  Anna's  first  "cnance  ixrmstinguish 
himself  came  in  1829  when  Ferdinand  VII 
of  Spain,  still  stubbornly  refusing  to  recog 
nize  the  independence  of  Mexico,  made  a 
ridiculous  attempt  to  reconquer  that  coun 
try  of  7,000,000  inhabitants  with  an  army 
of  3,000  men.  Deserted  by  its  fleet  and  rav- 

35 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

aged  by  yellow  fever,  the  Spanish  expedi 
tionary  force  was  easily  cooped  up  in  Tam- 
pico  and  forced  to  surrender  by  a  much 
larger  Mexican  army  under  General  Santa 
Anna.  Hailed  as  the  hero  and  savior  of  his 
country,  Santa  Anna  soon  made  himself 
President  by  heading  what  was  in  name  a 
revolution  but  in  fact  nothing  but  a  sordid 
mutiny  of  military  office-seekers.  After  he 
was  in  power  the  difficulty  of  finding  enough 
jobs  for  his  followers  and  other  internal  af 
fairs  of  Mexico  gave  Santa  Anna  no  time 
to  attend  to  Texas  for  the  next  three  years.-* 
In  the  meanwhile  a  general  convention* 
of  Texans  met  at  San  FeHpe.  in  the  fall  of 
1832,  to  consider  the  best  course  of  action 
to  follow  after  the  bloodshed  at  Velasco 
and  the  departure  of  the  Mexican  troops. 
Some  voted  for  war  and  a  declaration  of 
independence,  but  the  majority  of  the  dele 
gates  decided  that  Texas  should  stand  on 
her  rights  under  the  Mexican  Constitution 
of  1824,  the  upholding  and  enforcement  of 
which  had  been  the  ostensible  cause  of 
Santa  Anna's  revolution.  It  would  be 
enough,  they  decided,  if  Texas  were  sepa 
rated  from  Coahuila  and  erected  into  a 

36 


"REMEMBER  THE  ALAMO!" 

state.  Petitions  to  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  for  the  granting  of  statehood  and  the 
repeal  of  ALarnan's  laws  of  1830  were  ac 
cordingly  drafted.  A  secondLcDjavention, 
called  for  by  the  first,  met  in  March^i^j, 
adopted  a  tentative  constitution  and  sent 
Stephen  Fuller  Austin  to  press  the  claims 
of  Texas  at  Mexico  City. 

But  the  utmost  that  Austin  could  accom 
plish  there  was  the  removal  of  the  ban  on 
immigration  from  the  United  States,  which 
only  kept  out  peaceful  settlers  and  attracted 
the  adventurous.  And  when  Austin  at 
tempted  to  return  home  he  was  arrested  on 
the  road,  taken  back  to  Mexico  City,  and 
locked  up  in  the  old  prison  of  the  Inquisition 
on  no  definite  charge  but  a  general  suspicion 
of  treasonable  conspiracy.  The  proceedings 
in  Texas,  though  perfectly  regular  and  un 
derstandable  from  an  American  point  of 
view  and  in  accord  with  the  spirit  of  popu 
lar  government  that  theoretically  prevailed 
in  Mexico,  were  totally  incomprehensible 
to  the  mediaeval-minded  soldier-politicians 
of  the  capital.  They  were  particularly 
alarmed  and  mystified  by  the  name  and 
purpose  of  a  "  convention/'  regarding  it 

37 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

as  a  new  and  dangerous  kind  of  conspiracy 
against  authority.  The  political  knowl 
edge  of  Santa  Anna  and  his  gallant  col 
leagues  seems  to  have  been  on  a  par  with 
that  of  their  contemporaries,  the  mutinous 
Royal  Guard  of  Spain,  who,  when  asked  by 
Queen  Isabella  to  define  the  constitution 
they  were  shouting  for,  scratched  their 
heads  and  replied: 

"Carramba  !  We  don't  know.  They  say 
it  is  a  good  thing  and  will  raise  our  pay 
and  make  salt  cheaper."* 

An  offer  on  the  part  of  President  Andrew 
Jackson  for  the  purchase  of  Texas  by  the 
United  States  for  ^jkooOjOO^made  at  this 
time,  with  no  ulterior  purpose,  was  so  grossly 
mismanaged  by  the  incompetent  and  un 
scrupulous  American  minister  to  Mexico  as 
to  confirm  the  Mexicans'  belief  in  Alaman's 
theory  of  an  "American  conspiracy"  (see 
page  29)  and  strengthen  their  resolve  to 
take  strong  measures  with  the  Texans. 

\Agahuac  was  regarrisoned  and  its  custom 
house  re-established  in  1835.  William  B. 
Travis,  a  daredevil  Texan,  with  a  party  of 
kindred  spirits  swooped  down  on  the  place 

*  John  Hay,  "Castilian  Days,"  p.  171. 
38 


"REMEMBER  THE  ALAMO!" 

and  took  it  without  a  fight,  the  captured 
garrison  amicably  joining  in  a  Fourth-of- 
July  frolic  with  their  captors  and  neigh 
bors  before  being  shipped  back  to  Mexico. 
When  Santa  Anna  demanded  that  Travis 
and  four  other  ringleaders  in  the  affair  be 
yielded  up,  together  with  a  native  Mexican 
called  Zavala,  who  was  a  personal  enemy  of 
Santa  Anna's  and  a  warm  friend  of  Austin's, 
the  colonists  refused  to  surrender  these 
men  to  certain  death.  Austin  himself  was 
now  released  from  prison  and  came  home 
on  an  American  schooner,  that  not  only 
beat  off  the  attack  of  a  Mexican  revenue 
cutter  just  before  reaching  port  but  put 
out  with  reinforcements  and  captured  the 
cutter  next  day.  Then  on  top  of  these 
petty  scufflings  fell  a  mighty  political  thun 
derbolt. 

By  a  simple  act  of  a  subservient  congress 
Santa  Anna  set  aside  the  constitution  he 
had  sworn  to  uphold,  abolished  the  federal 
system  and  the  governments  of  the  different 
states,  and  made  Mexico  a  centralized  re 
public.  Texas  was  separated  from  Coahuila 
and  made  a  mere  administrative  depart 
ment,  subservient  to  an  all-powerful  con- 

39 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

gress  and  President  in  Mexico  City.  This 
destruction  of  states'  rights  might  mean  lit 
tle  to  most  native  Mexicans  to  whom  state 
hood  was  an  artificial  creation  of  the  last 
decade,  but  it  was  different  with  the  Tex- 
ans,  most  of  whom  came  from  the  Southern 
States  of  the  American  Union — common 
wealths  strong  in  their  belief  in  states'  rights 
and  local  patriotism.  A  third  general  con 
vention  was  assembled,  and  to  spare  the 
Mexicans'  feelings  it  was  called  a  "consul 
tation."  But  before  this  consultation  met, 
on  October  15,  hostilities  had  begun  in 
earnest. 

A  detachment  of  Mexican  troops  sent 
by  the  commander  of  the  garrison  at  Bexar 
to  seize  a  brass  six-pounder  belonging  to 
the  Texans  at  the  village  of  Gonzales  was 
met  and  defeated  by  the  "embattled  farm 
ers  "  and  ranchmen  there  assembled  for  its 
defense.  Another  body  of  colonists  cap 
tured  the  well-stored  but  unguarded  Mex 
ican  arsenal  in  the  old  mission  at  Goliad, 
even  as  Ethan  Allen  and  his  Green  Mountain 
boys  had  surprised  Ticonderoga.  War  was 
now  inevitable.  Even  the  peace-loving 
Austin  took  the  field  at  the  head  of  an  im- 

40 


"REMEMBER  THE  ALAMO!" 

provised  volunteer  army  that  marched 
against  Bexar,  where  General  Cos,  who  had 
been  sent  by_JJaiita,jYnna  to  subdue  the 
Texans,  had  arrived  just  in  time  to  learn 
of  the  affair  at  Gonzales.  Austin's  force 
encamped  a  little  distance  outside  Bexar; 
Cos  sallied  forth,  attacked  the  camp,  and 
was  driven  back  into  the  town  with  heavy 
loss.  But  when  Austin  ordered  an  assault 
upon  Bexar,  his  men  politely  but  firmly  re 
fused.  Except  that  they  were  well  armed 
—the  Texans'  rifles  were  vastly  superior  to 
the  muskets  of  the  Mexican  conscripts- 
Austin  would  have  been  justified  in  saying 
of  his  army  before  Bexar  what  Washington 
had  said  of  the  American  army  at  Cam 
bridge  sixty  years  before:  "A  hardy  militia, 
brave  and  patriotic,  but  illy  armed,  undis 
ciplined,  unorganized,  and  wanting  in  al 
most  everything  necessary  for  successful 


war." 


Much  to  his  relief,  Austin  was  sent  to 
the  United  States  with  two  others  as  agents 
of  the  provisional  government  established 
by  the  "consultation."  After  hesitating 
for  five  weeks  to  attack  regular  troops  in 
such  a  strong  position,  volunteers  sprang 

41 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

forward  in  the  Texan  camp  on  the  night 
of  December  3,  when  a  grizzled  veteran  of 
the  Mexican  War  of  Independence  cried: 
"Who  will  go  with  old  Ben  Milam  into 
San  Antonio  ?" 

Sau  Antonio  de  Bexar  was  a  typical 
Spanish-American  town,  with  streets  run 
ning  at  right  angles  from  its  two  plazas, 
which  were  surrounded  with  thick-walled 
stone  buildings,  whose  flat  roofs,  with  their 
breast-high  parapets,  were  well  adapted  for 
defense.  Barricades,  on  many  of  which 
were  mounted  cannon,  closed  the  ends  of 
the  streets  and  the  entrances  to  the  plazas, 
musketeers  thronged  the  roofs  and  the 
loopholed  walls,  and  it  would  have  been 
no  easy  task  for  undrilled  men  without 
bayonets  to  charge  down  the  streets  and 
make  a  frontal  attack  on  the  barricades. 
Very  wisely  the  Texans  did  nothing  of  the 
kind,  but  tunnelled  through  the  buildings, 
battering  their  way  through  the  flimsy  par 
tition  walls  with  heavy  logs,  driving  the 
defenders  before  them  from  room  to  room, 
house  to  house,  street  to  street,  for  five 
days  and  nights,  beginning  at  the  adobe 
huts  on  the  outskirts  and  ending  on  the 

42 


"REMEMBER  THE  ALAMO!" 

roofs  of  the  buildings  on  the  two  plazas. 
From  these  vantage-points  Milam's  men, 
who  had  lost  their  leader  but  won  the  town, 
could  fire  down  on  the  rear  of  the  now  use 
less  barricades.  GeneraLCos  and  what  was 
left  of  his  army  fled  JJCTQSS  the  river  and 
sought  refuge  in  the  ruined  mission  of  San 
Antonio,  which,  from  the  Spanish  name  of 
the  cottonwood  grove  in  which  it  stood,  was 
called  the  Alamo.  There  General  Cos  sur 
rendered  and  he  and  his  soldiers  were  al 
lowed  to  return  to  Mexico  on  parole,  having 
given  their  word  of  honor  not  to  fight  again 
against  Texas. 

Even  after  the  Mexican  troops  had  been 
driven  across  the  Rio  Grande  the  Texans 
still  hesitated  to  declare  their  independence, 
hoping  that  the  native  "federal  party  of 
the  interior"  might  now  overthrow  Santa 
Anna  and  restore  the  Constitution  of  1824. 
But  as  the  winter  passed  it  became  increas 
ingly  clear  that  Jiaata.  Anna  had  put  down 
all  his  foes  in  Mexico,  and  was  assembling 
the  largest  possible  aimy  for  the  invasion" 
and  reconquest  of  Texas.  To  resist  him 
there  were  only  the  weak  garrisons  at 
Goliad  and  Bexar,  and  at  Gonzales  a  little 

43 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

army  with  a  constantly  changing  person 
nel  under  General  Houston. 

Big  Sam_Houston,  who  as  a  Tennessee 
militiaman  had  charged  with  Andrew  Jack 
son  over  the  Creek  Indians'  log  ramparts  at 
Horseshoe  Bend,  where  he  had  been  se 
verely  wounded  and  earned  a  commission 
in  the  regular  army  for  his  gallantry,  was  a 
strange  and  picturesque  figure.  He  had 
been  governor  of  Tennessee,  he  had  lived 
for  years  as  a  drunken  outcast  among  the 
Cherokee  Indians;  he  was  six  feet  four 
inches  in  height,  and  "rejoiced  in  a  cata 
mount-skin  waistcoat."  But  for  all  his  ec 
centricities  the  new  commander-in-chief  of 
the  Texan  forces  was  a  born  fighter  and  a 
trained  soldier.  General  Houston  fully 
realized  the  necessity  of  concentrating  his 
scattered  detachments  before  Santa  Anna 
could  strike  and  destroy  them  separately, 
and  message  after  message  was  sent  order 
ing  Travis  and  Bowie  at  the  Alamo  and 
Fannin  at  Goliad  to  fall  back  on  the  main 
body.  But  discipline  was  scarcer  than 
courage  in  the  Texan  ranks,  and  with  a 
folly  as  splendid  as  that  of  Sir  Richard 
Grenville  at  the  battle  of  the  "Revenge," 

\ 


"REMEMBER  THE  ALAMO!" 

Travis  stuck  to  his  post,  declaring  that  he 
was  "determined  to  sustain  himself  as  long 
as  possible  and  die  like  a  soldier  who  never 
forgets  what  is  due  to  his  own  honor  or 
that  of  his  country." 

Santa  Anna  invaded  Texas  with  6,000 
men,  including  General  Cos  and  his  fol 
lowers,  who  made  no  bones  about  breaking 
their  parole.  The  advance-guard  crossed 
the  Rio  Grande  on  February  12,  1836,  and 
a  fortnight  later  they  were  in  Bexar. 

Travis  and  Bowie  made  no  attempt  to 
hold  the  town,  for  their  force,  less  than  200 
all  told,  was  not  strong  enough  even  to  line 
the  walls  of  the  mission  courtyard,  one  end 
of  which  was  formed  by  the  sturdy,  roofless 
ruin  of  the  little  chapel  of  St.  Anthony, 
that  we  call  the  Alamo.  The  little  band  of 
Texans  having  refused  to  surrender,  on 
Sunday,  March  6,  2,000  Mexican  infantry, 
under  the  eyes  of  the  President  of  the  Re 
public,  stormed  the  Alamo.  The  outer  en 
closure  was  quickly  carried  through  the 
breaches  in  its  walls,  but  the  chapel  had  to 
be  conquered  inch  by  inch,  by  bayonet 
against  rifle  butt  and  hunting-knife,  till  the 
last  of  the  garrison  lay  dead  in  the  last 

45 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

blood-stained  corner.  Travis  fell  among 
the  first  in  the  open  courtyard;  Bowie,  sick 
with  pneumonia,  was  butchered  with  the 
other  patients  in  the  hospital.  No  man  sur 
rendered,  no  man  escaped.  It  is  from  the 
Mexicans  themselves  we  have  this  story  of 
nineteenth-century  Americans  who,  bound 
by  no  Spartan  law  but  the  pride  of  race, 
died  like  Leonidas  and  his  three  hundred. 
"Thermopylae  had  its  messengers  of  de 
feat;  the  Alamo  had  none." 

Colonel  Fannin,  commanding  the  Texan 
garrison  at  Tjdffad,  disregarding  Houston's 
repeated  orders  and  the  terrible  warning 
of  the  fall  of  the  Alamo,  delayed  his  re 
treat  until  the  iQth  of  March.  Impeded 
with  ox-carts,  clumsy  artillery,  and  a  long 
train  of  non-combatants,  Fannin's  men  were 
overtaken  in  a  few  hours  by  the  Mexican 
cavalry  and  forced  to  intrench  themselves 
on  the  open  prairie  five  miles  from  the  near 
est  water-supply.  Resistance  was  hope 
less,  and  Fannin  surrendered  next  day,  after 
the  Mexican  officers  had  promised  that  the 
Americans'  lives  should  be  spared,  and  that 
the  greater  number  of  Fannin's  men,  who 
had  recently  come  from  the  United  States, 


"REMEMBER  THE  ALAMO!" 

should  be  allowed  to  return  there.  Taken 
back  to  Goliad,  the  captured  Americans 
were  imprisoned  there  for  a  week,  at  the 
end  of  which  time  all  the  able-bodied  men 
among  them  were  led  out,  with  their  knap 
sacks  on  their  backs,  under  a  strong  escort 
of  Mexican  infantry  and  marched  away, 
as  they  supposed,  toward  the  seacoast  and 
home.  But  when  they  had  gone  a  few  miles 
out  on  the  open  prairie  the  escort  stepped 
back,  raised  their  muskets,  and  deliberately 
shot  down  every  prisoner,  except  a  few  who 
escaped  by  running  away  or  by  hiding 
among  the  dead.  Returning  to  Goliad,  the 
same  soldiers  dragged  out  and  massacred 
the  American  sick  and  wounded,  including 
Colonel  Fannin,  who  is  said  to  have  been 
the  last  man  executed.  This  cold-blooded 
butchery  took  place  on  Palm  Sunday,  three 
weeks  after  the  fall  of  the  Alamo,  and  by 
the  direct  orders  of  President  Santa  Anna. 

"In  this  war,"  he  had  written  one  of  his 
officers,  "there  are  no  prisoners." 

In  justice  to  Santa  Anna  we  must  re 
member  that  the  custom  of  shooting  pris 
oners  of  war  had  long  been  followed  by  the 
Spaniards  in  America,  that  it  was  almost 
47 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

universal  on  both  sides  during  the  Mexican 
War  of  Independence,  when  14  Spanish 
officers  had  been  killed  in  Texas  by  their 
own  escort,  under  precisely  similar  circum 
stances  to  the  slaughter  of  Fannin's  men 
(see  page  19),  and  that  it  still  prevails  in 
Mexico  to-day.  With  certain  rare  excep 
tions,  honorably  distinctive  but  shamefully 
few,  every  victorious  general  of  Mexico 
from  Cortez  to  Pancho  Villa  has  stained  his 
hands  as  red  as  Santa  Anna's  with  his  pris 
oners'  blood. 

Houston's  army  had  already  evacuated 
Gonzales  on  March  14,  and  was  in  full  re 
treat  to  the  northeast.  Panic-stricken  by 
the  savagery  of  the  invaders,  the  greater 
part  of  the  people  of  Texas  left  their  homes, 
burning  all  that  they  could  not  carry  or 
drive  away  with  them,  and  fled  before 
Santa  Anna's  advancing  columns  to  the 
Louisiana  frontier  and  the  protection  of 
the  United  States.  The  new-born  govern 
ment  of  the  Republic  of  Texas,  that  had 
declared  its  independence  on  the  ist  of 
March,  abandoned  its  capital  at  Harris- 
burg,  which  was  occupied  on  April  16  by 
Santa  Anna  with  only  750  men.  Incau- 


"REMEMBER  THE  ALAMO!" 

)  tious  haste,  lack  of  provisions,  bad  roads, 
and  faulty  equipment  had  scattered  the  rest 
of  his  6,000  far  and  wide  over  the  broad 
surface  of  Texas.  Realizing  this,  Houston 
stopped  his  retreat  and  led  his  impatient 
little  army  back  to  strike  a  decisive  blow. 
After  a  good  deal  of  marching  and  counter 
marching  the  two  forces  came  face  to  face 
by  the  banks  of  the  San  Jacinto  River, 
not  far  from  where  it  flows  into  Galveston 
Bay. 

Instead  of  pressing  his  attack,  Houston 
let  the  first  day  pass  with  only  slight  skir 
mishing,  for  which  he  has  been  blamed  by 
most  military  critics,  as  the  delay  per 
mitted  Santa  Anna  to  be  joined  that  night 
by  General  Cos,  whose  reinforcements 
brought  the  Mexican  army  up  to  about 
1,200  men,  i  field-piece,  and  3  generals. 
The  Texans  numbered  about  800,  90  of 
whom  were  mounted,  and  they  had  a  bat 
tery  of  2  iron  four-pounders,  presented  by 
sympathetic  citizens  of  Cincinnati. 

In  the  heart  of  the  enemies'  country, 
a  deep  swamp  in  his  rear  and  a  hostile  army 
in  his  front,  which  was  protected  only  by 
a  flimsy  barricade  of  baggage  and  pack- 

49 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

saddles,  Santa  Anna  calmly  retired  to  his 
tent  for  his  usual  midday  nap.  His  sol 
diers  either  followed  their  chiefs  example, 
played  cards,  or  cooked  their  dinners,  their 
guns  unloaded,  their  bayonets  unfixed.  At 
high  noon  on  the  2ist  of  April  the  Texans 
filed  quietly  out  of  their  camp  and  formed 
in  line  behind  an  "island  of  timber."  Two 
shots  from  the  four-pounders  sent  the 
pack-saddles  flying,  a  single  volley  crashed 
from  the  Texan  rifles,  and  while  it  still 
rang  in  Santa  Anna's  startled  ears,  Houston 
and  his  800  came  roaring  over  the  barri 
cade,  beating  down  the  defenders  with 
clubbed  rifles  and  shouting  vengefully: 
"Remember  Travis!  Remember  Bowie! 
Remember  Goliad  !  ( Remember  the  Alamo !" 
There  was  no  fighting  and  no  defense 
worth  speaking  of  at  the  so-called  battle 
of  San  Jacinto,  though  that  in  no  way  de 
tracts  from  the  credit  of  Houston  and  his 
Texans.  Utterly  surprised  and  deserted  by 
their  own  officers,  the  meek-spirited  Mexican 
Indian  conscripts  were  killed  or  stampeded^ 
almost  as  easily  as  a  flock  of  sheepT^How 
many  hundred  of  them  were  killed  and 
wounded  it  is  impossible  to  say,  but  less 


"REMEMBER  THE  ALAMO!" 

i  than  50  out  of  thp  whole  1,200  escaped 
captivity  or  death.1  Vince's  Bridge,  the 
only  means  of  crossing  the  swamp  in  Santa 
Anna's  rear,  had  been  destroyed  just  be 
fore  the  assault  by  "Deaf  Smith,"  a  scout 
famous  ever  after  in  Texan  song  and  story. 

^Only  2  of  Houston's  men  were  killed  and 
23  wounded,  including  the  general  himself, 
who  had  been  shot  in  the  foot.; 

(  President  Santa  Anna  and 'General  Cos 
were  both  captured. )  Few  could  have 
blamed  the  Texans  if  both  these  worthies 
had  been  shot  or  hanged  to  the  nearest  tree, 
but  the  humanity  of  the  Texans  and  the 
firmness  of  Houston  spared  their  lives. 
Santa  Anna  hastened  to  sign  a  treaty^ 
recognizing  the  independence  of  Texas. 
Though  the  Mexican  Government  repudi 
ated  this  treaty  and  behaved  exactly  like 
the  Government  of  Spain  after  the  Treaty  of 
Cordova  had  been  signed  by  O'Donoju  and 
Iturbide,  the  independence  of  Texas  was 
nevertheless  an  accomplished  fact.  At  the 
news  of  Santa  Anna's  defeat,  the  other 
Mexican  commanders  in  Texas  retreated 
across  the  Rio  Grande.  Despite  Mexico's 
angry  protests  that  Texas  was  merely  a  re- 
Si 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

bellious  province  to  be  presently  subdued, 
the  other  nations  of  the  earth,  following  the 
leadership  of  the  United  States,  soon  rec 
ognized  the  independence  of  the  Republic 
of  Texas. 


CHAPTER  V 
MEDIATION  AND  ANNEXATION 

MEDIATION  between  Mexico  and  the 
Republic  of  Texas,  through  the  good 
offices  of  the  British  and  French  ministers 
at  Mexico  City,  was  proposed  by  President 
Houston  in  the  summer  of  1843.  During 
the  seven  years  since  San  Jacinto,  an  ir 
ritating  and  inconclusive  border  warfare 
had  been  carried  on  by  both  sides.  Towns 
had  been  raided  and  cattle  driven  off  on 
either  side  of  the  border;  Mexicans  had  cap 
tured  the  district  judge,  members  of  the 
bar  and  other  prominent  citizens  of  San 
Antonio,  and  for  the  last  three  years  the 
Texan  navy  of  four  small  schooners  had 
been  subsidized  by  the  revolutionary  party 
in  Yucatan  and  cruised  successfully  off  the 
Gulf  coast  of  Mexico. 

More  ambitious  but  less  successful  was 
the  attempt  made  to  conquer  New  Mexico 
—as  all  the  huge  and  indefinite  region 
between  Texas  and  California  was  then 

S3 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

called — with  a  force  of  less  than  300 
Texans  in  1841.  Worn  out  and  scattered 
after  their  desert  march,  these  men  sur 
rendered  to  the  New  Mexican  authorities 
without  firing  a  shot,  were  imprisoned  in 
Santa  Fe  and  then  taken  to  Mexico  City, 
where  they  were  eventually  released,  after 
having  suffered  great  hardships  and  count 
less  indignities.  In  the  United  States  public 
sympathy  for  the  "prisoners  of  Santa  Fe" 
was  both  warm  and  outspoken,  and  it  was 
quite  impossible  for  the  Federal  Govern 
ment,  with  its  limited  powers,  to  keep  armed 
American  filibusters  from  going  to  help  the 
Texans  either  as  individuals  or  in  semi- 
organized  companies  disguised  as  "im 
migrants/'  A  violent  attack  on  the  United 
States  Government  for  tolerating,  if  not 
conniving  at,  these  breaches  of  neutrality 
was  published  by  the  Mexican  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs  in  a  Mexico  City  news 
paper  and  led  to  strange  results. 

A  stray  copy  of  this  paper  fell  into  the 
hands  of  Commodore  Ap  Catesby  Jones,  a 
gallant  but  somewhat  impulsive  officer  of 
Welsh  descent,  then  commanding  the  Pa 
cific  squadron  of  the  United  States  navy, 

54 


MEDIATION  AND  ANNEXATION 

and  convinced  him  that  war  must  have 
broken  out  between  the  United  States  and 
Mexico.  By  the  same  mail — the  first  that 
had  reached  him  for  many  months — Jones 
also  received  a  Boston  paper  which  declared 
that  Mexico  was  about  to  cede  California 
to  Great  Britain.  These  things,  together 
with  the  accidental  departure  of  the  British 
fleet  that  had  been  lying  with  his  own  in  the 
harbor  of  Callao,  on  the  west  coast  of  South 
America,  were  enough  for  Jones.  Setting 
sail  at  once,  he  reached  the  harbor  of 
Monterey,  demanded  and  received  the 
surrender  of  the  astonished  town,  scared 
the  29  soldiers  out  of  the  fort  and  the 
governor  into  the  interior — all  on  Wednes 
day,  October  19,  1842.  On  Thursday  the 
commodore  landed  his  marines,  hoisted  the 
stars  and  stripes,  annexed  both  Upper  and 
Lower  California,  and  delivered  to  the  in 
habitants  an  impressive  proclamation  that 
he  had  composed  on  his  way  up  the  coast. 
On  Friday  an  American  who  kept  a  general 
store  in  Monterey  came  on  board  the  flag 
ship  with  a  newspaper  of  later  date.  Dis 
covering  from  this  and  the  evidence  of  his 
own  senses  that  there  was  no  war  and 

55 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

no  English  annexation,  Commodore  Jones 
realized  his  error,  hauled  down  his  flag  im 
mediately,  apologized  like  a  gentleman,  and 
sailed  away. 

The  belief  that  England  was  planning 
to  extend  her  empire  and  curtail  the  future 
growth  of  the  United  States,  by  annexing 
not  only  California  but  also  "the  Oregon 
country"  and  Texas,  was  almost  universal 
among  the  American  people  at  this  time. 
It  was  'less  than  thirty  years  since  the  War 
of  1812,  the  land  operations  of  which  had 
consisted  mainly  of  a  series  of  disastrous 
attempts  on  our  part  to  invade  Canada, 
and  the  danger  of  the  creation  of  a  second 
Canada  to  the  south  of  us  had  been  darkly 
portrayed  by  the  aged  Andrew  Jackson, 
hero  of  the  last  war  with  Great  Britain. 
The  success  of  the  mediators  in  obtaining 
a  truce  preliminary  to  negotiations  for  peace 
between  Texas  and  Mexico,  taken  in  con 
junction  with  the  well-known  English  zeal 
for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  greatly  alarmed 
the  administration  at  Washington.  In 
reply  to  a  communication  from  Mr.  Up- 
shur,  President  Tyler's  Secretary  of  State, 
Lord  Aberdeen,  the  British  premier,  de- 

56 


MEDIATION  AND  ANNEXATION 

clared  that  Great  Britain  while  "constantly 
exerting  herself  to  procure  the  general 
abolition  of  slavery  throughout  the  world" 
was  entertaining  no  "occult  designs"  in  re 
gard  to  either  Mexico  or  Texas. 

Forty-eight  hours  after  this  despatch  was 
sent  Upshur  was  killed,  together  with  a 
number  of  other  people,  by  the  explosion 
of  the  great  wrought-iron  pivot  gun  "  Peace 
maker"  on  board  the  new  cruiser  Princeton, 
and  John  C.  Calhoun  became  Secretary  of 
State. 

Both  President  Tyler  and  the  new  head 
of  his  Cabinet  were  Southerners  and  slave 
owners,  who  judged  slavery  from  the  mild 
paternalism  of  their  own  plantations  and 
neighborhoods  and  regarded  the  abolition 
ists  as  misguided  fanatics  bent  on  the  dis 
ruption  of  the  Union.  Both  men  were 
singularly  free  from  the  fear  of  political 
consequences  or  the  ties  of  party  allegiance. 
Elected  Vice-President  by  the  Whigs,  to  the 
slogan  of  "Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too!"  in 
the  roaring  log-cabin-and-hard-cider  cam 
paign  of  1840,  Tyler  had  soon  succeeded  to 
the  presidency  on  the  death  of  his  aged  and 
infirm  chief,  General  Harrison,  and  pres- 

57 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

ently  broke  entirely  with  the  party  that 
had  elected  him.  Calhoun,  on  his  part, 
cared  little  for  elective  office  but  acted  en 
tirely  on  his  own  personal  convictions, 
chief  among  which  was  a  sincere  belief  in 
the  righteousness  of  negro  slavery.  Ac 
cident  or  fate  had  placed  in  power  the  two 
men  best  fitted  to  reopen  the  vexed  question 
of  the  annexation  of  Texas  and  set  it 
squarely  before  the  American  people. 

President  Andrew  Jackson  had  favored 
the  annexation  as  well  as  the  recognition 
of  Texas,  but  his  Congress  had  voted  it 
down.  Neither  did  it  appeal,  though  re 
peatedly  sought  by  the  Texans  themselves, 
to  the  Van  Buren  administration,  which 
sought  to  maintain  neutrality  with  Mexico 
and  avoid  stirring  up  unseemly  contro 
versies  with  the  unpopular  but  rapidly 
growing  faction  of  abolitionists  by  advocat 
ing  what  must  be  an  extension  of  slave  ter 
ritory.  Yet  it  became  increasingly  clear 
that  the  matter  could  not  be  put  off  indef 
initely,  for  the  50,000  or  60,000  Texans 
with  an  empty  treasury  could  not  long 
defend  an  empty  empire  against  8,000,000 
Mexicans  if  ever  the  latter  stopped  their 

58 


MEDIATION  AND  ANNEXATION 

internal  wars  and  turned  their  full  strength 
to  the  subjugation  of  their  "rebellious 
province."  To  guarantee  peace  with  Mex 
ico,  Texas  had  either  to  enter  the  Union,  as 
nine  out  of  ten  Texans  desired,  or,  in  the 
last  extremity,  seek  the  protection  of  some 
strong  European  power. 

Within  six  weeks  after  he  had  become 
Secretary  of  State,  Calhoun  had  negotiated 
and  signed  a  treaty  of  annexation  with 
Texas.  But  before  it  could  be  ratified  by 
the  United  States  Senate  the  two  great 
political  parties  had  held  their  national 
conventions  for  the  approaching  presiden 
tial  campaign.  Henry  Clay,  the  Whig 
candidate,  had  shown  himself  indifferent,  if 
not  hostile  to  annexation,  and  as  the  Whig 
Senators  were  in  the  majority  the  treaty 
was  lost. 

The  Democratic  National  Convention  of 
1844  was  one  of  the  most  exciting  and  in 
teresting  in  our  political  history.*  It  was 
the  first  to  have  its  proceedings  reported  by 
telegraph,  and  the  first  in  which  there  was 
either  a  " stampede"  or  the  nomination  of 

*  See  Joseph  Bucklin  Bishop's  "Presidential  Nominations  and 
Elections." 

59 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

a^'dark  horse."  Though  their  candidate 
wa^so  little  known  in  comparison  to  his  il 
lustrious  opponent  as  to  arouse  the  derisive 
cry  of  "Who  is  James  K.  Polk  ?"  his  plat 
form  appealed  strongly  to  the  popular  spirit 
of  the  time  by  declaring  boldly  that  "the 
reoccupation  of  Oregon  and  the  reannexa- 
tion  of  Texas  aregreat  American  mea 


sures." 


The  Whigs,  on  the  other  hand,  depended 
less  on  their  platform — an  uninspiring  re 
cital  of  minor  issues — than  on  the  character 
of  their  great  but  politically  unfortunate 
candidate.  If  Clay  had  followed  the  shrewd 
advice  of  his  managers  and  kept  silence  on 
the  Texas  question,  beyond  opposing  im 
mediate  annexation,  he  would,  in  all  prob 
ability,  have  been  elected.  But  he  had  a 
fatal  weakness  for  writing  private  letters 
on  public  affairs,  and  two  of  these  letters, 
made  public  by  his  correspondents,  cost 
him  the  presidency.  In  one,  Clay  depre 
cated  the  admission  of  Texas,  because  it 
would  be  "opposed  to  the  wishes  of  a  con 
siderable  and  respectable  portion  of  the 
Confederacy,"  which  statement  was  inter 
preted  as  favoring  the  abolitionists  and  told 

60 


MEDIATION  AND  ANNEXATION 

heavily  against  him  in  the  South.  In  the 
second  letter,  Clay  declared  that  he  did 
not  "think  that  the  subject  of  slavery  ought 
to  affect  the  question  one  way  or  another." 
This  turned  against  him  the  votes  of  the 
abolitionist  or  "Liberty  Party/'  which  held 
the  balance  of  power  in  the  closely  contested 
and  pivotal  States  of  New  York  and  Michi 
gan.  Those  few  thousand  votes  cost  Henry 
Clay  the  thirty-six  presidental  electors  from 
New  York  and  made  James  K.  Polk  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States. 

President  Tyler,  who  had  come  out  for 
re-election  on  an  independent  ticket,  with 
"Tyler  and  Texas"  for  his  platform,  soon 
went  over  to  the  Democrats  and  withdrew 
in  favor  of  Polk.  Encouraged  by  the  result 
of  the  November  elections,  which  had 
strengthened  the  Democratic  majority  in 
the  House  and  created  one  in  the  Senate, 
Tyler  urged  the  admission  of  Texas  as  a 
State  by  a  joint  resolution  of  Congress. 

It  was  inevitable  that  the  new  member 
of  the  Union,  both  from  its  geographical 
position  and  the  desire  of  its  own  people, 
should  be  a  slave  State.  Ex-President 
John  Quincy  Adams,  the  leader  of  the  anti- 

61 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

slavery  forces,  had,  curiously  enough,  been 
the  first  to  advocate  the  annexation  of 
Texas  in  1824,  and  he  now  found  some  diffi 
culty  in  explaining  this  apparent  inconsis 
tency.  His  real  reasons  for  opposing  the 
annexation  of  Texas  were  a  genuine  hatred 
of  slavery  and  an  equally  genuine  hatred 
of  Andrew  Jackson  and  all  his  works.  The 
reasons  he  now  advanced  were,  first,  that 
Texas  was  still  an  integral  part  of  Mexico, 
and,  second,  that  the  treaty-making  power 
of  the  United  States  Government,  while 
enabling  it  to  annex  uninhabited  tracts  of 
land,  did  not  aiydrorize  bringing  alien  popu 
lations  into  theWnion.  Mr.  Adams's  first 
objection,  however,  was  hardly  in  accor 
dance  with  the  established  facts,  and  his 
second,  though  more  worthy  of  considera 
tion,  was  paid  little  heed  to  at  the  time. 
The  best  that  the  opponents  of  slavery 
,  could  do  was  to  limit  its  existence  in  the 
new  territory  to  below  the  line  of  the  Mis 
souri  Compromise,  thus  fixing  the  northern 
boundary  of  Texas  at  36°  30'  north  lati 
tude. 

The  joint  resolution,  amended  so  as  to 
give  the  President  the  option  of  reopening 

62 


"t""'\v8^°     c/^1>an 
^b 


MEDIATION  AND  ANNEXATION 

negotiations  for  the  annexation  of  Texas, 
instead  of  directly  admitting  it  as  a  State, 
passed  Congress  and  was  promptly  signed 
by  President  Tyler  on  March  I,  1845.  In 
stead  of  negotiating  or  waiting  for  his  suc 
cessor  to  act,  Tyler  immediately  submitted 
the  offer  to  Texas. 

Mediation  between  Texas  and  Mexico 
had  so  far  progressed  that  the  preliminaries 
of  a  treaty  were  actually  signed  on  March 
19  and  May  29.  Mexico,  yielding  to  the 
urgent  warning  of  the  French  and  English 
mediators,  was  ready  to  acknowledge  the 
independence  of  Texas,  if  the  latter  would 
pledge  herself  never  to  suffer  annexation  by 
the  United  States.  But  these  concessions 
had  been  made  too  late. 

With  scarcely  a  dissenting  vote,  the  Texas 
Congress,  on  June  16,  a  Texan  national 
convention  on  the  4th  of  July,  and  the 
people  themselves  at  a  special  election  held 
the  following  October,  chose  to  accept  the 
offer  of  the  United  States.  President  Polk 
signed  the  final  resolution  of  Congress,  ad 
mitting  the  State  of  Texas  on  December  19, 
1845. 

More  than  nine  months  before,  between 
63 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

Tyler's  offer  to  Texas  and  Folk's  inaugura 
tion,  Senor  Almonte,  the  Mexican  minister, 
had  demanded  his  passports  and  left  the 
United  States,  protesting  against  the  threat 
ened  disintegration  of  his  country  and 
breathing  dire  threats  of  war. 


64 


CHAPTER  VI 
CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR 

WHAT  were  the  causes  of  our  first  war 
with  Mexico  ? 

To  the  abolitionists  of  the  period  the 
answer  was  simply:  Slavery.  Their  ver 
sion  of  Texan  history  was  well  summed  up 
in  a  pamphlet  published  over  the  signature 
of  John  Quincy  Adams  and  twelve  other 
members  of  Congress  in  March,  1843.  It 
declared  that  the  settlement  of  American 
citizens  in  Texas,  the  creations  of  differences 
with  the  Mexican  Government,  the  setting 
up  of  an  independent  republic,  and  the 
frustration  of  Mexico's  attempts  to  sub 
due  "her  revolted  province,"  had  all  been 
brought  about  by  the  machinations  of  the 
American  slave  owners,  through  the  Federal 
Government  they  controlled.  The  purpose 
of  this  deep-laid  plot  was  to  bring  about  the 
annexation  of  Texas  and  the  creation  from 
its  territories  of  three  or  four  new  slave 
States.  This,  Mr.  Adams  declared,  would 
65 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

"eternize  slavery/'  cause  war  with  Mex 
ico,  and  justify  the  withdrawal  of  the  free 
States  from  the  Union.* 

This  publication  had  little  effect  in  the 
United  States  at  the  time,  but  it  created  a 
great  impression  in  Mexico  by  its  confirma 
tion  of  Alaman's  theory  of  an  "American 
conspiracy."  Like  his  fellow  scholar  and 
statesman,  Alaman,  Adams  was  actuated 
by  high  and  patriotic  motives,  but  uncon 
sciously  distorted  the  facts  to  fit  his  own 
fervid  convictions.  As  a  campaign  docu 
ment,  illustrating  his  party's  point  of  view, 
Mr.  Adams's  pamphlet  has  great  historical 
value,  but  to  regard  it  as  an  impartial 
chronicle  of  past  events  is  ludicrous.  Yet 
from  the  triumph  of  the  abolition  cause  in 
the  Civil  War  until  very  recently  most  ac- 

*  These  charges  were  based  partly  upon  the  observations  of 
Benjamin  Lundy,  an  abolitionist  who  travelled  through  Texas 
in  1835,  and  partly  upon  the  indiscreet  action  of  General  Gaines, 
commanding  the  United  States  forces  on  the  Texas  border  in 
1836.  Importuned  by  refugees  fleeing  before  the  advance  of 
Santa  Anna,  Gaines  wilfully  mistook  the  Mexicans  for  "In 
dians,"  and  sent  nine  companies  of  United  States  infantry  into 
Texas  as  far  as  Nacogdoches.  Though  this  was  an  outrageous 
affront  to  Mexico  that  was  never  properly  apologized  for  by  the 
United  States,  it  was  undertaken  solely  on  General  Gaines's  own 
initiative  and  had  no  effect  on  the  outcome  of  the  San  Jacinto 
campaign.  But,  like  Jones's  exploit  at  Monterey,  it  lent  color 
to  the  "conspiracy  theory." 

66 


CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR 

counts  of  our  first  war  in  Mexico  have  been 
based,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  rather 
upon  these  excited  assertions,  made  in  the 
heat  of  a  bitter  fight,  than  upon  a  careful 
review  of  the  facts.  But  now  that  that 
fight  has  been  won  and  slavery  has  been 
dead  for  half  a  century  and  more,  there  is 
no  longer  any  reason  either  to  fear  that  any 
sane  man  will  come  forward  in  defense  of 
that  ancient  evil,  or  for  us  to  continue  to 
charge  the  slave  owners  with  a  needless, 
unproved  conspiracy  to  gain  an  unprofit 
able  end. 

No  "conspiracy"  was  needed  to  create 
the  republic  of  Texas.  If  there  had  not 
been  a  single  negro  slave  in  all  North  Amer 
ica  some  Moses  Austin  would  nevertheless 
have  led  American  settlers  into  Texas, 
where  they  would  sooner  or  later  have 
quarrelled  with  the  Mexicans  over  home 
rule,  the  tariff,  and  religious  freedom,  won 
their  independence  and  sought  admission 
into  the  Union.  But  because  negro  slavery 
did  exist  both  in  Texas  and  the  Southern 
States  of  the  Union,  the  entrance  of  Texas 
was  vehemently  sought  by  slavery's  friends 
and  fought  by  slavery's  foes,  till  another 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

element  brought  aid  and  victory  to  the 
former. 

Analysis  of  Folk's  support  at  the  polls 
shows  us  what  this  element  was.  While 
he  carried  eight  slave  States  to  Clay's  five, 
Polk  also  received  the  electoral  vote  of 
seven  free  States  to  his  opponent's  six, 
including  two  in  New  England  and,  what  is 
particularly  significant,  the  entire  north 
west. 

Not  only  slavery  but  Oregon  helped  bring 
Texas  into  the  Union.  For  a  quarter  of  a 
century  there  had  been  a  conscious  pairing- 
off  of  new  States,  slave  and  free,  on  either 
side  of  the  line  established  by  the  Missouri 
Compromise.  The  danger  to  this  jealously 
preserved  balance  of  power  that  many  be 
sides  the  abolitionists  saw  in  the  admission 
of  Texas,  out  of  which  three  or  four  new 
slave  States  might  be  made,  was  now  met 
and  counterbalanced  by  the  proposed  ad 
mission  of  an  even  greater  expanse  of  free 
territory  to  the  north.  The  time  had  not 
yet  come  when  the  American  people  were 
to  realize  the  great  truth  that  Abraham  Lin 
coln  was  presently  to  declare:  "A  house 
divided  against  itself  cannot  stand.  .  .  . 

68 


CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR 

The  Union  cannot  endure  half  slave  and 
half  free."  To  the  men  of  Folk's  genera 
tion  his  coupling  of  the  "reoccupation  of 
Oregon  and  the  re-annexation  of  Texas"  in 
his  platform  seemed  not  only  shrewd  poli 
tics  but  sound  statesmanship.  His  policy 
accorded  with  both  the  compromising  and 
the  adventurous  spirits  of  the  age.  The 
current  of  expansion  to  the  northwest 
joined  with  the  current  of  expansion  to  the 
southwest  and  together  swept  away  all  op 
position. 

But  after  Texas  was  safely  in  the  Union 
slavery  had  little  or  nothing  more  to  gain 
by  a  war  with  Mexico,  nor  had  it  any  need 
to  force  that  conflict.  In  the  words  of  Pro 
fessor  Garrison,  of  the  University  of  Texas: 

"No  theory  of  a  conspiracy  is  needed  to 
explain  the  war  with  Mexico.  While  it 
was  strongly  opposed  and  condemned  by  a 
bold  and  outspoken  minority,  the  votes  in 
Congress  and  the  utterances  of  the  con 
temporaneous  journals  show  that  it  was 
essentially  a  popular  movement,  both  in 
Mexico  and  in  the  United  States.  The  dis 
agreement  reached  the  verge  of  an  out 
break  in  1837,  and  the  only  thing  that  pre- 
69 


©UR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

vented  a  conflict  then  was  that  Congress 
was  a  bit  more  conservative  than  the  Presi 
dent.  But  neither  the  aggressiveness  of 
Jackson  nor  even  that  of  Polk  would  have 
been  so  likely  to  end  in  actual  fighting,  had 
it  not  been  well  understood  that  they  were 
backed  by  sympathetic  majorities."* 

If  there  was  no  conspiracy,  what,  then, 
brought  about  the  war  ? 

The  primary  but  not  the  sole  cause  was 
our  annexation  of  Texas  and  Mexico's  re 
sentment  of  that  action.  In  the  second 
place  were  the  unpaid  claims,  amounting 
to  more  than  $5,000,000,  of  American  citi 
zens  against  the  Mexican  Government  for 
property  seized  or  destroyed  during  past 
revolutions.  In  the  third  place  was  the 
desire  of  the  United  States  to  annex  Cali 
fornia. 

President    Polk   considered   these   three 
things  and  evolved  a  plan.    Though  diplo- 
ifnatic  relations  had  been  broken  off  before 
ihis  inauguration,  he  endeavored  to  reach  a 
•peaceful  settlement  and  persuaded  the  Mex 
ican  Government  to  receive  an  American 
minister.     This  envoy,   Mr.  John  Slidell, 

.*  Hart's  "American  Nation,"  vol.  XVII,  p.  202. 
70 


CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR 

was  instructed  to  obtain  Mexico's  recogni 
tion  of  our  right  to  annex  Texas  by  offering 
her  indirect  compensation,  in  the  form  of 
an  extra  large  price  for  the  purchase  of 
California  and  as  much  of  New  Mexico  as 
could  be  obtained  for  not  more  than  $25,- 
000,000.  This  purchase  price  was  to  in 
clude  the  assumption  by  the  United  States 
Government  of  the  otherwise  uncollectible 
claims  of  American  citizens  against  Mexico. 
This  proposition  seemed  perfectly  reason 
able  and  generous  to  Polk,  who  laid  much 
stress  on  the  precedent  of  Spain's  cession 
of  Florida  in  1819  in  return  for  the  as 
sumption  by  the  United  States  of  $5,000,000 
worth  of  bad  debts  to  American  citizens 
from  the  Spanish  crown.  Mexico's  hold  on 
her  distant  province  of  California  in  1846 
was  almost  as  feeble  as  Spain's  on  Florida 
in  1819,  and  her  financial  condition  was 
fully  as  bad. 

From  the  War  of  Independence  till  the 
present  day  Mexico's  unpaid  debts  have 
been  a  fruitful  source  of  shame  and  suffering 
to  that  country.  Except  during  the  dic 
tatorship  of  Porfirio  Diaz  the  government 
has  changed  hands  so  rapidly,  the  treasury 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

has  been  so  empty,  and  the  people,  par 
ticularly  those  of  the  capital,  so  prone  to 
regard  the  payment  of  foreign  debts  as  an 
unpatriotic  surrender,  that  few  of  Mexico's 
creditors  have  been  paid  in  full. 

One  effective  bit  of  debt  collecting  was 
the  bombardment  and  seizure  of  Vera 
Cruz  by  a  French  fleet  in  1838,  which  also 
caused  the  restoration  in  popular  favor  of 
General  Santa  Anna.  Intrusted  with  the 
defense  of  Vera  Cruz  after  its  capture,  he 
prudently  waited  till  the  French  sailors  and 
marines  were  re-embarking,  when  the  Mex 
icans  exchanged  a  few  shots  with  them  re 
sulting  in  the  "repulse"  of  the  French  and 
the  loss  of  Santa  Anna's  left  leg.  The 
"Hero  of  Tampico"  was  now  hailed  as  the 
"Hero  of  Vera  Cruz,"  and  within  three 
years  he  was  able  to  make  himself  once  more 
President  of  Mexico. 

How  Santa  Anna  ruled  and  robbed  his 
country  in  shabby  pomp,  how  he  had  six 
colonels  in  full-dress  uniform  stand  behind 
his  chair  at  dinner,  how  he  gave  his  own 
left  leg  a  magnificent  military  funeral,  how 
the  people  rose  in  exasperation,  drove  Santa 
Anna  into  exile,  dug  up  his  left  leg  and 

72 


CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR 

dragged  it  disrespectfully  through  the  streets 
of  Mexico  City,  can  be  best  read  in  the  de 
lightful  memoirs  of  Madame  Calderon,  the 
American  wife  of  the  Spanish  minister  to 
Mexico  at  that  interesting  period. 

President  Herrera,  who  succeeded  Santa 
Anna,  was  not  the  leader  of  a  mere  clique 
of  successful  mutineers,  but  had  been  placed 
in  power  by  something  approaching  a  gen 
uine  popular  movement.  Yet  because  his 
government  consented  to  receive  Mr.  Sli- 
dell  and  discuss,  however  reluctantly,  the 
recognition  of  the  annexation  of  Texas,  the 
settlement  of  the  American  claims,  and  the 
cession  of  California,  Herrera  was  promptly 
driven  out  of  office  by  a  revolution  under 
the  leadership  of  General  Paredes,  com 
manding  the  Army  of  the  North.  The 
American  envoy  took  ship  at  Vera  Cruz, 
and  President  Paredes  loudly  declared  that 
the  time  had  come  "to  appeal  to  the  honor 
of  Mexican  arms." 

James  K.  Polk  has  been  severely  criticised 
for  his  aggressive  attitude  toward  Mexico  at 
this  point,  but  his  critics  usually  omit  to  say 
anything  of  General  Mariano  Paredes  y 
Arillaga.  No  one  would  attempt  to  write  a 

73 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

history  of  President  Wilson's  relations  with 
Mexico  and  leave  out  all  mention  of  Generals 
Victoriano  Huerta  and  Venustiano  Car- 
ranza,  yet  Paredes  was  fully  as  reactionary 
as  the  former  and  as  impossible  to  reason 
with  as  the  latter.  As  Mr.  Rives  points  out, 
he  was  a  vainglorious  incompetent,  who  be 
lieved  in  the  invincibility  of  Mexican  arms 
and  the  restoration  of  monarchical  rule. 
Like  Santa  Anna,  whom  he  had  recalled  to 
power  with  a  mutiny  in  1841  and  driven 
out  with  another  one  in  1844,  Paredes  had 
been  an  officer  in  the  Spanish  army  till  the 
declaration  of  independence  by  Iturbide.* 
To  deal  with  a  Mexican  ruler  of  this  kind 
would  have  exhausted  the  patience  of  a 
far  more  diplomatic  President  than  stub 
born,  narrow-minded  James  K.  Polk.  With 
two  such  men  placed  respectively  in  the 
White  House  and  the  Palacio  Nacional  at 
such  a  time  war  was  inevitable. 

It  was  at  this  point  that  Santa  Anna, 
from  his  exile  in  Cuba,  sent  a  confidential 
agent  to  Washington  with  the  suggestion 
that  if  he  were  helped  by  Polk  to  return  to 
Mexico,  Santa  Anna  would  then  drive  out 

*  "  Rives,"  vol.  I,  p.  27. 

74 


CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR 

Paredes,  make  himself  President,  and  ne 
gotiate  the  desired  treaty  with  the  United 
States.  Though  Santa  Anna  afterward 
denied  ever  making  such  an  offer,  there  is 
abundant  evidence,  including  Folk's  own 
diary,  that  it  was  not  only  made  but  ac 
cepted.  But  before  it  could  be  carried  into 
effect  hostilities  had  already  begun. 

The  immediate  cause  of  the  war  was  _the_ 
advance   of  the    United    States    forces   in 
Texas,  which  had  been  encamped  at  Corpus 
Chnsti,    near   the   mouth   of  the   Nueces 
River,  to  the  east  bank  of  the  Rio  Grande. 

Though  the  Mexicans  had  continually 
maintained  that  all  Texas  was  still  a  part 
of  their  country,  they  had  made  no  pro 
test  about  its  occupation  by  United  States 
troops  until  Taylor  crossed  the  Nueces. 
By  this  action,  they  declared,  he  had  left 
Texas  and  invaded  the  Department  of 
Tamaulipas  and  Nuevo  Leon,  in  Mexico. 

The  western  boundary  of  Texas,  both  as 
a  Spanish  and  a  Mexican  province,  had  un 
doubtedly  been  the  Nueces  River.  The 
claim  of  the  Texans  that  their  republic  ex 
tended  to  the  Rio  Grande  rested,  first,  on  a 
secret  treaty  to  that  effect,  signed  by  Santa 
75 


*UR  FIRST  WAR  IN  JV1EXICO 

Anna  immediately  after  the  battle  of  San 
Jacinto,  but  promptly  declared  void  by  the 
Mexican  Government;  and,  second,  on  con 
quest  and  the  retreat  of  the  Mexican  armies 
to  the  west  bank  of  the  Rio  Grande.  The 
country  between  the  two  rivers  was  claimed 
by  both  sides,  but  effectively  occupied  by 
neither.  It  was  in  reality  a  No  Man's  Land, 
settled  here  and  there  by  squatters  and  riff 
raff  from  both  nations. 

The  Texan  title  by  conquest  was  at  least 
a  debatable  one,  but  Palk  rested  his  claim 
squarely  upon  the  old  disproved  fable  of  a 
French  title  to  Texas  derived  from  La 
Salle's  settlement,  acquired  by  the  United 
States  with  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  and 
surrendered  to  Spain  by  the  Florida  Treaty 
(see  pages  8  and  9).  On  a  revival  of  this 
non-existent  and  solemnly  renounced  right, 
Polk  based  the  plank  in  his  platform  urging 
"the  reannexation  of  Texas,"  as  is  shown  by 
his  subsequent  assertion  that  "the  Texas 
which  was  ceded  to  Spain  by  the  Florida 
Treaty  of  1819  embraced  all  the  country 
now  claimed  by  the  State  of  Texas  between 
the  Nueces  and  the  Rio  Grande."* 

*  Message  to  Congress,  December,  1846. 

76 


CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR 

There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  the  sincerity 
of  Folk's  belief  in  this  notorious  fable  of 
American  history.  Very  many  others,  in 
cluding  Henry  Clay,  Folk's  recent  rival  for 
the  presidency,  had,  at  one  time  or  another, 
entertained  this  belief.  The  total  influence 
of  this  historical  error  in  bringing  about  our 
first  war  with  Mexico  is  incalculable. 

Did  Polk,  by  ordering  Taylor  to  ad 
vance  to  the  Rio  Grande,  deliberately  plan 
to  provoke  a  war  in  the  interest  of  slavery  ? 

What  Polk  and  the  South  could  have  ex 
pected  to  gain  by  so  doing  is  not  easy  to 
prove.  The  South  had  already  gained  its 
great  object  in  the  annexation  of  Texas, 
and  had  no  corresponding  interest  in  Cali 
fornia.  Polk  ardently  desired  California, 
but  still  hoped  to  obtain  it  peacefully. 
And  he  was  not  unaware  that  his  election 
had  been  due  to  Northern  as  well  as  South 
ern  votes  and  that  an  expensive  and  un 
popular  war  might  well  cost  the  Democratic 
party  its  majority  in  Congress,  as  in  fact 
it  did  at  the  congressional  elections  in  the 
following  autumn. 

Folk's  motive  in  ordering  Taylor's  ad 
vance  seems  to  have  been  twofold.  By 

77 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

thus  taking  possession  of  the  disputed  ter 
ritory  he  expected,  first,  to  put  the  United 
States  in  a  stronger  position  to  negotiate 
for  that  territory,  and,  second,  to  give  the 
United  States  army  a  good  base  from  which 
to  operate  should  negotiations  fail  and  war 
ensue.  By  exactly  such  an  aggressive  policy 
Polk  was  even  then  carrying  to  a  trium 
phant  conclusion  the  negotiations  with 
Great  Britain,  which  began  with  an  Amer 
ican  migration  into  Oregon  to  the  cry  of 
"  Fifty-four  Forty  or  Fight,"  and  ended, 
because  neither  side  wanted  to  fight  but 
was  ready  to  do  so  if  necessary,  in  a  peace 
ful  and  honorable  compromise  at  the  forty- 
ninth  parallel.  Because  these  strong,  blunt 
methods  had  succeeded  with  England,  Polk 
thought  that  would  be  equally  effective 
with  Mexico. 

Because  Spain  had  prudently  preferred 
giving  up  Florida  in  payment  of  five  million 
dollars'  worth  of  American  claims  to  losing 
it  in  a  disastrous  war  with  the  United  States 
in  1819,  Polk  saw  no  reason  why  Mexico 
should  not  follow  the  same  course  with 
California  in  1846,  especially  as  the  United 
States  was  offering  a  substantial  cash  bonus, 

78 


CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR 

over  and  above  the  assumption  of  debts. 
He  overlooked  the  fact  that  while  the  Span 
ish  people  in  1819  did  not  care  a  maravedi 
about  Florida,  the  Mexican  people  in  1846 
were  ready  to  make  short  work  of  any  Mex 
ican  executive  that  "surrendered"  Texas 
and  California  to  the  hated  Americans  of 
the  North. 

In  the  last  analysis,  Folk's  great  error 
lay  in  overestimating  the  yielding  and  un 
derestimating  the  explosive  elements  of  the 
Mexican  character.  We  can  understand 
this  the  more  readily  when  we  consider  how 
seventy  years  later  another  President  of 
the  United  States,  infinitely  less  aggressive 
and  more  intelligent  than  James  K.  Polk, 
almost  failed  for  the  same  reasons  to  pre 
vent  American  intervention  and  our  second 
war  in  Mexico. 


79 


CHAPTER  VII 
PALO  ALTO  AND  RESACA  DE  LA  PALMA 

THE  advance-guard  of  General  Tay 
lor's  army,  part  of  which  had  marched 
overland  from  Corpus  Christi  and  the  rest 
had  been  transported  by  sea  to  the  new  base 
at  Point  Isabel,  reached  the  east  bank  of 
the  Rio  Grande,  opposite  the  Mexican  town 
of  Matamoros,  on  March  28,  1846.  Great 
excitement  and  resentment  were  displayed 
by  the  Mexicans,  who  immediately  threw 
up  batteries  on  their  side  of  the  river. 
Taylor  therefore  had  his  engineers  con 
struct  a  large  quadrangular  earthwork  or 
"strong  bastioned  field-fort."  From  the 
name  of  its  commander  this  was  presently 
named  Fort  Brown,  and  became  the  nucleus 
of  the  present  city  of  Brownsville. 

General  AjH£Ludia,  commanding  the  Mex 
ican  Army  of  the  North  that  had  been 
assembled  at  Matamoros,  sent  Taylor  an 
ultimatum  on  April  12  ordering  him  to  with- 

80 


PALO  ALTO  AND  RESACA  DE  LA  PALMA 

draw  within  twenty-four  hours  toward  the 
far  bank  of  the  Nueces.  Instead  of  com 
plying,  Taylor  arranged  with  the  naval 
escort  that  had  accompanied  his  transports 
to  Point  Isabel,  for  a  blockade  of  the  mouth 
of  the  Rio  Grande.  This  warlike  act  cut 
off  the  Mexican  army  from  its  main  source 
of  supplies,  and  was  the  last  straw  that 
broke  the  back  of  Mexico's  patience. 

President  Pared£S-  issued  a  proclamation 
on  the  23d  of  April,  declaring  that: 

".  .  .  Hostilities  therefore  have  been 
begun  by  the  United  States  of  America,  who 
have  undertaken  new  conquests  lying  within 
the  line  of  the  Department  of  Tamaulipas 
and  Nuevo  Leon,  while  the  troops  of  the 
United  States  are  threatening  Monterey  in 
Upper  California.  .  .  .*  From  this  day 
defensive  war  begins,  and  every  point  of 
our  territory  which  may  be  invaded  or  at 
tacked  shall  be  defended  with  force." 

General  Arista,  who  had  supplanted 
Ampudia  in  command,  led  the  Mexican 
army  across  the  Rio  Grande  on  the  24th. 
Captain  Thornton's  troop  of  the  Second 
United  States  Dragoons,  on  scouting  duty, 

*  See  page  98. 

81 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 
A 

were  surprised  and  captured  by  an  over 
whelming  force  of  Mexicans  on  the  follow 
ing  day.  Thornton  alone  escaped  by  leap 
ing  his  horse  over  a  hedge,  and  carried  the 
news  to  General  Taylor,  who  immediately 
notified  Washington  of  the  outbreak  of 
hostilities  and,  as  he  had  been  previously 
authorized  to  do  in  such  an  emergency, 
called  on  the  governors  of  Texas  and 
Louisiana  for  eight  regiments  of  volun 
teers. 

Fearing  that  the  Mexicans  would  try  to 
cut  him  off  from  his  base,  Taylor  retreated 
on  May  I  with  the  main  body  of  his  army 
to  Point  Isabel.  Two  companies  of  artillery 
and  the  Seventh  Infantry  were  left  under 
Major  Brown  to  hold  the  fort  opposite 
Matamoros.  Arista's  army  invested  the 
fort  and  bombarded  it  for  several  days,  both 
from  the  Matamoros  batteries  and  with 
guns  planted  in  the  rear  of  the  work.  Little 
damage  was  done  to  the  fort  and  only  two 
of  the  garrison  were  killed,  but  one  of  these 
was  Major  Brown. 

Hearing  the  cannonade  and  having  ob 
tained  a  strong  guard  of  sailors  and  marines 
from  the  fleet  to  hold  Point  Isabel,  Taylor 

82 


PALO  ALTO  AND  RESACA  DE  LA  PALMA 

turned  back  on  May  6.  Arista  had  marched 
to  meet  him,  and  on  the  8th  the  two 
armies  met  on  the  open  prairie  at  Palo 
Alto,  or  "Tall  Timber." 

Deducting  the  thousand  or  so  left  in  ob 
servation  outside  Fort  Brown,  Arista  had 
approximately  4,000  men  with  which  to 
face  Taylor's  2,300.  The  bulk  of  the  Mex 
ican  force  consisted  of  four  large  battalions 
of  regular  infantry — patient,  plodding  con 
scripts  who  had  been  released  from  jail  or 
kidnapped  from  civil  life  into  the  ragged 
ranks  of  the  standing  army.  Half-trained, 
ill-disciplined,  and  seldom  paid,  these  troops 
were  nevertheless  celebrated  for  their  abil 
ity  to  make  long  marches,  and,  until  their 
spirit  had  been  broken  by  continuous  de 
feats,  were  not  afraid  to  face  the  Americans 
in  the  open  field. 

As  for  the  rank  and  file  of  Taylor's  army, 
a  typical  company  of  United  States  regu 
lars  at  this  time  "consisted  of  60  men,  in 
cluding  non-commissioned  officers  and  pri 
vates;  of  these  2  were  English,  4  Scotch,  7 
Germans,  16  Americans,  and  the  remainder 
Irish/'*  Their  high-collared,  bobtailed 

*  Ballentine,  "An  English  Soldier  in  Mexico,"  p.  91. 

83 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

jackets  were  rendered  still  more  uncom 
fortable  by  barbarous  old-fashioned  leather 
stocks;  otherwise  the  dark-blue  uniforms 
were  plain  and  serviceable,  if  rather  hot  for 
a  semitropical  climate.  The  soft-topped, 
bell-crowned  American  forage-caps  of  1846 
were  shaped  very  much  like  those  worn  by 
the  British  officers  in  Flanders  in  1916. 
Unlike  Flanders  there  was  not  a  single 
trench  dug  or  fought  in  from  beginning  to 
end  of  our  first  war  in  Mexico  except  at  the 
siege  of  Vera  Cruz. 

There  was  little  need  to  dig  shelters  from 
the  infantry  fire  when  both  sides  were 
armed  with  smooth-bore,  muzzle-loading 
flintlock  muskets.  Percussion-lock  rifles, 
though  well  known  and  widely  used  by 
civilian  sportsmen,  were  still  distrusted  by 
the  conservative  military  mind.  There  was 
a  great  difference,  however,  between  the 
American  and  Mexican  flintlocks.  The 
former,  made  at  the  Springfield  arsenal, 
were  the  best  in  the  world,  the  latter  "were 
all  of  British  manufacture  and  had  the 
Tower  mark  on  their  locks;  but  they  were 
old  and  worn  out,  having  evidently  been 
condemned  as  unserviceable  in  the  British 

84 


PALO  ALTO  AND  RESACA  DE  LA  PALM  A 

army  and  then  sold  to  the  Mexicans  at  a 
low  price/' 

As  for  the  cavalry  of  the  two  armies,  the 
American  dragoons  were  much  inferior  in 
numbers  to  the  Mexican  lancers  and  equally 
superior  in  every  other  respect.  Though 
northern  Mexico  is  a  country  of  born 
horsemen  and  as  admirably  adapted  for 
mounted  infantry  tactics  as  was  South 
Africa  in  1900,  the  Mexican  trooper  of  1846 
was  neither  a  mounted  sharpshooter  like 
the  Boer  nor  an  old-fashioned  cavalryman 
who  could  charge  home  with  the  cold  steel. 
His  clumsy  escopeta,  or  carbine,  made  him 
of  little  use  when  dismounted,  and  his  gayly 
pennoned  lance  was  more  often  thrust 
through  the  bodies  of  American  wounded 
than  crossed  with  the  bayonets  of  even 
broken  and  disordered  American  infantry. 
But  the  two  regiments  of  United  States 
dragoons  were  the  crack  corps  of  the  Amer 
ican  army.  Gallantly  led,  well  armed  with 
carbine,  sabre,  and  pistol,  and  mounted  on 
chargers  that  dwarfed  the  undersized  Mex 
ican  ponies,  Twiggs's  and  Kearny's  dra 
goons  were  ready  and  eager  to  uphold  the 

*  Ballentine,  p.  199. 

85 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

traditions  of  Light-Horse  Harry  Lee  and 
Mad  Anthony  Wayne.* 

At  Palo  Alto,  Arista  had  twelve  pieces  of 
artillery,  Taylor  two  light  field-batteries  of 
four  guns  each  and  two  eighteen-pounders 
drawn  by  oxen.  The  Mexican  cannon  were 
beautifully  cast  in  bronze,  many  of  them 
bearing  the  crown  and  arms  of  Spain,  with 
dates  and  inscriptions  like  "Barcelona, 
1774,"  or  "Cadiz,  1767."  Mounted  on 
clumsy  wooden  carriages,  these  ponder 
ous  relics  were  incapable  of  being  quickly 
limbered  up  and  moved  from  one  part  of 
the  battle-field  to  another,  but  were  rather 
regarded  as  fixtures  once  the  Mexicans  had 
succeeded  in  bringing  up  and  "placing  their 
cumbersome  artillery  in  position,  which  was 
ill  proportioned  to  the  poor  little  mules  that 
had  to  draw  it."f  The  United  States  field 
artillery,  on  the  other  hand,  had  been 
brought  to  a  high  state  of  efficiency.  (The 
ox-drawn  battery,  mentioned  above,  was 
an  exceptional  makeshift.)  Its  light,  mod- 

*  The  American  people  are  still  spoken  of  among  certain  of  our 
Indian  tribes  as  the  "Long  Knives,"  a  name  derived  from  the 
sabres  of  Wayne's  dragoons  at  the  battle  of  the  Fallen  Timbers 
in  1794. 

f  Davis,  "Jefferson  Davis,"  I,  340. 

86 


PALO  ALTO  AND  RESACA  DE  LA  PALMA 

ern  six-pounders,  each  drawn  by  two  pairs 
of  horses,  dashed  up  and  swung  into  bat 
tery  in  a  way  to  make  the  Americans  boast 
of  "the  Flying  Artillery,"  and  the  Mexi 
cans  marvelled  to  behold  "the  Northern 
horses  thunder  with  the  cannon  at  their 
heels." 

But  the  greatest  difference  between  the 
two  armies  was  in  the  officers.  Most  of 
the  Spanish  veterans  in  the  Mexican  service 
were  now  superannuated.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  National  Military  Academy  at 
Chapultepec  had  not  been  founded  till 
1833,  and  its  work  had  been  much  impeded 
and  interrupted  by  chronic  poverty  and 
frequent  revolutions.  Both  its  few  trained 
graduates  and  the  untrained  political  ap 
pointees  from  civil  life  who  made  up  the 
great  mass  of  officers  had  seen  more  or  less 
active  service  in  the  endless  fighting  be 
tween  the  constantly  shifting  military  fac 
tions,  where  each  learned  to  mistrust  his 
comrade  as  a  possible  future  foe. 

As  for  the  American  officers,  to  quote  one 
of  them  who  was  at  that  time  a  young 
second  lieutenant  in  the  Fourth  Infantry: 

"Every  officer,  from  the  highest  to  the 
87 


OUR   FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

lowest,  was  educated  in  his  profession— 
not  at  West  Point  necessarily,  but  in  the 
camp,  in  garrison,  and  many  of  them  in 
Indian  wars.  ...  A  better  army,  man  for 
man,  probably  never  faced  an  enemy  than 
the  one  commanded  by  General  Taylor  in 
the  earliest  two  engagements  of  the  Mex 
ican  War."* 

Zachary  Taylor,  who  at  this  time,  at  the 
age  of  sixty-one,  was  only  a  colonel  in 
actual  rank  but  had  been  brevetted  a  brig 
adier-general  by  Polk,  was  a  native  of 
northern  Virginia,  whose  parents  had  taken 
him  with  them  to  Kentucky  when  he  was 
ten  years  old.  Entering  the  army  in  the 
War  of  1812,  Taylor  had  distinguished  him 
self  by  his  defense  of  Fort  Harrison  against 
the  Indians,  and  he  had  served  in  the  Black 
Hawk  and  the  Seminole  Wars.  His  ap 
pearance  was  anything  but  military,  for  he 
almost  never  wore  a  uniform  and  was  fond 
of  riding  with  both  his  legs  hanging  over 
the  same  side  of  the  horse.  But  he  was  a 
hard  fighter  and  a  born  handler  of  men. 
His  soldiers  affectionately  nicknamed  him 
"Old  Rough  and  Ready,"  and  declared, 

*  "Personal  Memoirs  of  U.  S.  Grant,"  I,  130. 
88 


PALO  ALTO  AND  RESACA  DE  LA  PALMA 

in  the  words  of  a  popular  ballad  of  the 
period:* 

"Though    our   General    at    best   was    indifferently 

dressed, 
In  a  dingy  green  frock  coat  and  in  pants  of  cot- 

tonade, 

And  a  broken  old  straw  hat,  still  we  did  not  care 
for  that.  .  .  ." 

The  battle  of  Palo  Alto  was  an  artillery 
duel,  the  infantry  on  either  side  being 
drawn  up  in  solid  ranks,  just  out  of  musket 
range.  Not  only  had  Taylor  fewer  men  in 
line  than  his  opponent,  but  he  was  also 
obliged  to  detach  a  strong  body  of  infantry 
and  a  squadron  of  dragoons  to  protect  the 
supply-train  of  three  hundred  wagons 
parked  in  the  American  rear.  But  his  two 
eighteen-pounders  in  the  centre  and  the 
light  battery  on  either  flank  made  terrible 
havoc  in  the  close-packed  Mexican  ranks 
with  accurate  shell  fire,  while  the  copper 
cannon-balls  from  the  Mexican  guns  flew 
so  slowly  through  the  air  that  the  Amer 
icans  usually  saw  them  coming  in  time  to 
open  ranks  and  let  the  solid  shot  pass 

*M'Carty's  "National  Songs,  1846." 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

harmlessly  by.  After  his  men  had  suffered 
helplessly  at  long  range  for  an  hour,  while 
they  implored  him  either  to  advance  or 
retreat,  Arista  made  a  half-hearted  and 
quickly  checked  forward  movement  against 
the  American  right  flank.  The  long  prairie 
grass  was  set  on  fire  by  burning  wadding, 
and  under  cover  of  the  smoke  Arista  at 
tempted  to  turn  Taylor's  left,  at  the  same 
time  sending  a  body  of  lancers  to  renew  the 
attack  on  the  right.  There  the  Fifth  United 
States  Infantry  expectantly  formed  a  hol 
low  square,  in  the  centre  of  which  was 
Taylor  himself,  but  the  Mexican  cavalry 
did  not  press  their  charge,  and  their  in 
fantry  were  soon  driven  back  by  artillery 
fire.  Thereafter  both  sides  remained  in 
active  till  nightfall,  when  Arista  made  good 
his  retreat  under  cover  of  darkness.  His 
official  report  placed  the  total  Mexican  loss 
in  killed  and  wounded  at  252,  which  was 
probably  an  underestimate.  The  American 
loss  was  9  killed,  including  the  senior  artil 
lery  officer,  Major  Ringgold;  44  wounded, 
and  2  missing. 

Falling  back   to  within   three   miles   of 
Fort  Brown,  Arista's  army  took  up  a  strong 

90 


PALO  ALTO  AND  RESACA  DE  LA  PALMA 

position  at  Resaca  de  la  Palma.  This 
"Palm-Tree  Ravine"  was  one  of  a  chain  of 
depressions  and  lakes  that  marked  the 
course  of  an  abandoned  bed  of  the  Rio 
Grande.  Steep-banked  and  dry-bottomed, 
it  was  shaped  like  a  crescent  with  the  points 
toward  the  Americans,  and  lay  directly 
athwart  the  Point  Isabel  road,  down  which 
they  must  advance.  On  either  side  of  this 
road  the  ground  was  covered  with  so  dense 
a  growth  of  sharp-thorned  chaparral  as  to 
be  impassable  to  either  cavalry  or  artillery. 
Behind  this  natural  "barbed- wire  entan 
glement"  the  Mexican  infantry  lined  the 
near  bank  of  the  ravine,  exposing  only  their 
heads  and  shoulders.  Most  of  Arista's 
regulars  were  on  the  right  of  his  concave 
line,  the  left  being  held  by  one  regular  bat 
talion,  the  Tampico  veterans,  and  the  vari 
ous  irregular  and  local  troops,  supported 
by  two  field-pieces.  Three  other  Mexican 
guns  were  planted  in  the  centre  to  sweep 
the  road.  Behind  their  infantry  supports 
were  the  remaining  guns  and  the  cavalry 
in  reserve,  while  only  two  hundred  yards 
back  of  the  firing-line  lay  the  Mexican 
camp. 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

A  council  of  war,  summoned  by  General 
Taylor  after  the  fight  at  Palo  Alto,  voted 
against  an  advance,  but  "Old  Rough  and 
Ready"  overrode  this  advice.  Leaving  the 
wounded  and  the  wagon-train  with  a  strong 
guard  of  infantry  inside  a  hastily  thrown-up 
earthwork  armed  with  the  two  eighteen- 
pounders  and  a  couple  of  twelve-pounders 
that  had  been  carried  unmounted  in  the 
train,  he  led  the  rest  of  his  little  army  in 
pursuit  of  the  Mexicans,  and  came  in  touch 
with  them  at  Resaca  de  la  Palma  about 
four  o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  the  gth  of 
May. 

Deploying  his  infantry  to  the  left  and 
right  of  the  road,  Taylor  drove  in  the  Mex 
ican  left,  but  their  stronger  right  wing  re 
sisted  stubbornly.  Realizing  that  the  three 
guns  on  the  road  were  the  keystone  of  the 
defense,  Taylor  ordered  Captain  May  to 
charge  and  take  them  with  his  squadron  of 
dragoons.  Covered  by  a  round  of  grape- 
shot  from  an  American  battery,  May's 
troopers  charged  down  the  road  in  column 
of  fours,  rode  over  the  Mexican  guns,  cut 
down  the  artillerymen,  drove  in  the  in 
fantry  supports,  wheeled  and  cut  their 

92 


PALO  ALTO  AND  RESACA  DE  LA  PALMA 

way  out  again,  bringing  with  them  a  cap 
tured  general  as  a  trophy  of  this  gallant 
little  charge  that  moved  even  a  Mexican 
poet  to  sing  its  praise: 

"On  they  came,  those  Northern  horsemen, 
On  like  eagles  through  the  sun, 
Behind  them  came  the  Northern  bayonet 
And  the  field  was  lost  and  won." 


"The  Northern  bayonet,"  in  the  capable 
hands  of  the  Eighth  Infantry  and  part  of 
the  Fifth,  followed  hard  on  the  heels  of  the 
dragoons.  Ridgely's  battery  galloped  up 
to  the  edge  of  the  ravine,  unlimbered  and 
poured  grape-shot  into  the  very  faces  of 
the  Mexican  infantry.  General  Arista, 
who  up  to  this  time  had  refused  to  believe 
that  any  serious  attack  was  contemplated 
and  had  been  writing  in  his  tent,  now 
dropped  his  pen  and  ran  out  to  rally  his 
cavalry  and  other  reserves  for  a  counter 
charge.  But  the  American  infantry  massed 
on  the  road  and  scattered  through  the 
chaparral  met  them  with  so  hot  a  fire  that 
the  Mexicans  broke  and  fled. 

The  last  Mexican  to  leave  the  field  was 
93 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

the  brave  color-sergeant  of  the  Tampico 
veterans,  who  vainly  tried  to  rally  the  bat 
talion  whose  colors  he  had  saved.  Hundreds 
of  muskets  and  all  the  cannon  were  aban 
doned  by  the  flying  army.  When  the 
Americans  entered  the  captured  camp,  they 
found  the  fires  burning,  five  hundred  pack- 
mules  tethered  and  their  packs  arranged 
neatly  on  the  ground,  and  General  Arista's 
personal  baggage  and  private  letters  were 
still  in  his  tent. 

Hotly  pursued  by  the  American  dragoons 
and  field-batteries,  General  Arista  and  what 
was  left  of  his  army  fled  through  the  gath 
ering  darkness  to  the  Rio  Grande.  The 
guns  of  Fort  Brown  opened  at  long  range 
on  the  demoralized  fugitives  huddled  to 
gether  on  the  bank  or  crowded  into  the 
one  tiny  ferry-boat,  and  many  were  drowned 
in  the  flooded  river  before  the  survivors 
found  temporary  shelter  behind  the  bat 
teries  of  Matamoros.  The  total  Mexican 
loss  was  conservatively  estimated,  in  Arista's 
official  report,  at  262  killed,  355  wounded, 
and  185  missing.  Thirty-nine  Americans 
had  been  killed  and  82  wounded. 

On  the  day  of  the  battle  of  Resaca  de  la 
94 


PALO  ALTO  AND  RESACA  DE  LA  PALMA 

Palma  the  news  reached  Washington  of 
the  outbreak  of  hostilities  and  the  capture 
of  Thornton's  dragoons.  The  following 
day  was  Sunday,  and  Polk  spent  it  in  writ 
ing  a  message  to  Congress  which  was  de 
livered  on  Monday  morning.  Rehearsing 
his  version  of  the  grievances  of  the  United 
States  against  Mexico,  Polk  declared: 

"Mexico  has  passed  the  boundary  of  the 
United  States,  has  invaded  our  territory, 
and  shed  American  blood  upon  American 
soil.  She  has  proclaimed  that  hostilities 
have  commenced  and  that  the  two  nations 
are  now  at  war.  I  invoke  the  prompt  ac 
tion  of  Congress  to  recognize  the  existence 
of  the  war,  and  to  place  at  the  disposition 
of  the  executive  the  means  of  prosecuting 
the  war  with  vigor  and  thus  hastening  the 
restoration  of  peace.  To  this  end  I  recom 
mend  that  authority  be  given  to  call  into 
the  public  service  a  large  body  of  volunteers 
to  serve  for  not  less  than  six  or  twelve 
months,  unless  sooner  discharged.  ...  I 
further  recommend  that  a  liberal  provision 
be  made  for  sustaining  our  entire  military 
force  and  furnishing  it  with  supplies  and 
munitions  of  war.  ..." 
95 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

Spurred  by  the  wide-spread  fears  for  the 
safety  of  Taylor's  little  army,  known  to  be 
facing  superior  numbers  of  the  enemy, 
Congress  quickly  carried  out  the  Presi 
dent's  recommendations.  A  bill  that  was 
passed  by  the  House  of  Representatives 
that  same  Monday,  by  the  Senate  on  Tues 
day,  and  made  a  law  by  the  President's 
signature  on  Wednesday,  May  13,  declared 
that,  whereas,  "By  the  act  of  the  Republic 
of  Mexico,  a  state  of  war  exists  between 
that  government  and  the  United  States," 
the  President  was  authorized  to  call  for 
50,000  volunteers  to  serve  for  twelve 
months  or  the  war.  Ten  million  dollars 
were  appropriated  to  defray  the  first  costs 
of  the  conflict. 

All  our  wars  have  been  popular  at  the 
beginning,  and  the  first  Mexican  War  be 
gan  with  two  brilliant  victories  that  evoked 
an  outburst  of  national  enthusiasm  com 
parable  to  that  caused  fifty-two  years  later 
by  the  battle  of  Manila  Bay.  Throughout 
the  country  bonfires  blazed,  volunteer  com 
panies  began  to  drill,  and  mass  meetings 
cheered  the  army  and  pledged  their  sup 
port  to  the  administration.  Confident  in 

96 


PALO  ALTO  AND  RESACA  DE  LA  PALMA 

the  nation's  support,  Polk  and  his  advisers 
proceeded  to  the  easiest  and  most  profitable 
part  of  the  war,  the  conquest  of  California 
and  the  southwest. 


97 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  CONQUEST  OF  CALIFORNIA 

THOUGH  the  Jesuits  had  maintained 
missions  on  the  arid  shores  of  Lower 
California  since  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  it  was  not  until  after  the  expulsion 
of  the  Society  of  Jesus  from  Spanish  Amer 
ica  in  1767  that  the  colonization  of  Upper 
California  began.  It  was  prompted  by 
the  fear  that  the  English — or  perhaps  the 
"Muscovites"  from  Russian  America — 
were  about  to  found  a  colony  at  Monterey; 
the  same  fear  that  brought  about  the  sei 
zure  of  that  port  seventy-five  years  later  by 
Commodore  Jones.*  The  Franciscan  friars, 
to  whom  the  work  was  now  intrusted,  made 
fast  progress  under  the  energetic  leadership 
of  the  famous  Brother  Junipero  Serro,  and 
with  the  not  always  helpful  assistance  of 
the  Spanish  colonial  office.  From  San 
Diego  to  San  Francisco  missions  were 

*Richman,  "California,"  chap.  V. 
98 


THE  CONQUEST  OF   CALIFORNIA 

easily  established  among  the  lazy,  degener 
ate  California  Indians.  Each  mission  was 
indifferently  guarded  by  a  detachment  of 
"Presidial  troops"  —not  regular  soldiers, 
but  half-disciplined  military  colonists,  who 
debauched  the  converts  and  quarrelled  with 
the  friars.  Very  few  civilian  settlers  could 
be  induced  to  go  from  Mexico  to  Cali 
fornia,  though  it  was  a  veritable  lazy  man's 
paradise.  Wheat  was  so  easily  grown  that 
there  was  bread  enough  for  all,  cattle  and 
sheep  abounded,  and  wild  horses  were  so 
plentiful  that  they  were  sometimes  killed 
as  vermin. 

Even  before  the  Mexican  War  of  Inde 
pendence,  which  destroyed  the  already  de 
caying  authority  of  the  friars,  but  was 
otherwise  unfelt  in  this  far  region  of  New 
Spain,  English,  Russian,  and  American 
traders  were  plying  up  and  down  the  coast 
of  California.  The  Californians  were  too 
glad  to  be  able  to  buy  English  hardware 
and  Yankee  "notions"  to  pay  much  heed 
to  either  Spanish  or  Mexican  prohibitive 
tariffs,  yet  they  were  too  lazy  to  flay  and 
clean  the  hides  of  their  own  cattle  the 
traders  wished  to  buy,  but  left  this  work  to 

99 


OUR  FIRST  WAR   IN  MEXICO 

the   sailors,   as   you   may   read   in   Dana's 
"Two  Years  Before  the  Mast." 

Even  more  stringent  than  Mexico's  tariff 
on  foreign  goods  was  Mexico's  ban  on  for 
eign  settlers  in  California.  But  it  was  in 
evitable  that  the  systematic  evasion  of  the 
former  should  lead  to  the  nullification  of 
the  latter.  Sailors  deserted  their  ships  to 
turn  beach-combers,  agents  acquired  resi 
dences,  and  traders  built  stores  in  every 
port  in  California.  To  be  sure,  these  out- 
landers  remained  with  the  tacit  permission 
of  the  Californians.  But  presently  a  newer, 
rougher,  and  more  numerous  foreign  ele 
ment  appeared,  that  cared  no  more  about 
native  Californians  and  Mexican  laws 
than  Miles  Standish  did  for  the  Pequot 
Indians  and  their  tribal  customs.  These 
rude  intruders  were  the  American  frontiers 
men  who  came  in  ever-increasing  numbers, 
year  after  year,  over  the  passes  of  the 
Rockies  or  down  from  Oregon,  to  spy  out 
the  rich  lands  of  California  and  gradually 
to  form  their  ov/n  settlements  in  the  Sacra 
mento  Valley.  Unlike  the  Texans,  these 
Americans  on  the  Pacific  coast  had  neither 
been  invited  into  the  country  nor  granted 

IOO 


UN  IV,    Op 

THE 


tracts  of  land.  They  had  no  legal  right  to 
remain  in  California,  and  did  so  simply  be 
cause  the  Californian  government,  whose 
leaders  were  constantly  organizing  petty 
"revolutions"  either  against  each  other 
or  against  the  distant  rulers  in  Mexico 
City,  was  too  weak  to  evict  them.  These 
American  squatters  were  only  too  ready  to 
start  fighting  on  their  own  account  at  the 
first  rumor  of  hostilities  between  Mexico 
and  the  United  States. 

"If  you  ascertain  with  certainty  that 
Mexico  has  declared  war  against  the  United 
States,  "  read  the  standing  orders  that  Polk 
had  sent  to  Commodore  Sloat,  who  had 
succeeded  the  impulsive  Jones  in  command 
of  the  Pacific  squadron,  "you  will  at  once 
possess  yourself  of  the  port  of  San  Francisco 
and  blockade  or  occupy  such  other  ports  as 
your  force  will  permit." 

New  orders  to  Sloat,  bidding  him  "in 
the  event  of  actual  hostilities"  to  seize  the 
ports  without  further  delay,  were  sent  out 
in  November,  1845,  by  the  frigate  Congress, 
commanded  by  Commodore  Stockton,  who 
was  also  charged  with  a  confidential  letter 
to  Mr.  Larkin,  the  American  consul  at 

101 


OUR  FIRST;  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

Monterey.  As  a  secret  agent  of  his  govern 
ment,  Larkin  was  "to  cultivate  the  good 
will  and  friendship  of  the  "Californians," 
whether  Caii^iaia  was  sold  by  Mexico  to 
the  United  States,  or  revolted  from  Mexico 
and  wished  to  enter  the  Union,  or  was  con 
quered  by  the  United  States  in  case  Mexico 
declared  war. 

Because  the  Congress  was  to  make  a 
long  passage  by  way  of  Cape  Horn  and 
Hawaii,  a  cipher  copy  of  the  orders  to 
Sloat  and  verbal  instructions  to  Larkin  were 
intrusted  to  Lieutenant  Gillespie  of  the 
Marine  Corps,  who  was  to  disguise  himself 
as  a  civilian  travelling  for  pleasure  and 
hasten  overland  to  California  through  Mex 
ico.  Gillespie  also  took  with  him  private 
letters  from  Senator  Benton  to  Benton's 
son-in-law,  Captain  Fremont. 

John  Charles  Fremont,  the  son  of  a 
French  father  and  a  Virginian  mother,  was 
born  in  Savannah,  Georgia,  on  January  21, 
1813.  He  taught  mathematics  in  the  navy, 
became  a  railroad  surveyor,  and  was  ap 
pointed  a  second  lieutenant  in  the  corps  of 
topographical  engineers  in  1838.  After  his 
marriage  to  the  daughter  of  Thomas  H. 
1 02 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Benton,  in  1842,  Fremont  was  detailed  to 
make  important  explorations  in  the  West, 
and  greatly  distinguished  himself  by  his 
daring,  his  accurate  surveys,  and  his  vivid 
accounts  of  hitherto  little-known  region's. 
He  had  followed  the  Oregon  trail  from  St. 
Louis,  up  the  north  fork  of  the  Platte,  and 
across  the  South  Pass  of  the  Rocky  Moun 
tains  in  1842.  During  the  following  year 
he  had  explored  the  Salt  Lake  region,  re 
visited  Oregon,  and  descended  the  Columbia 
River  to  the  Pacific,  crossed  the  Sierra 
Nevada  in  midwinter  into  California,  dis 
proved  the  existence  of  the  mythical  "River 
Buenaventura,"  then  supposed  to  flow  into 
San  Francisco  Bay,  and  returned  south 
through  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  and  east 
by  the  Spanish  trail  from  Los  Angeles. 

On  his  third  expedition,  in  the  summer  of 
1845,  Fremont  had  with  him  a  party  of 
fifty  men  of  the  topographical  corps,  and 
after  making  explorations  in  the  unin 
habited  northern  part  of  California,  where 
the  Mexican  authorities  had  given  them 
tacit  permission  to  go,  he  led  his  force  into 
inhabited  Mexican  territory  near  Monterey. 
To  General  Jose  Castro,  the  commanding 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

officer  of  that  district,  Fremont  explained 
that  his  men  were  not  soldiers  but  civilians, 
surveying  a  route  from  the  United  States 
to  the  Pacific.  But  they  had  no  passports, 
so  Castro  ordered  them  out  of  the  country. 
Whereat  Fremont  built  a  log  fort  only  a 
few  miles  from  Monterey,  hoisted  the  stars 
and  stripes,  and  breathed  bombastic  de 
fiance  to  Castro.  The  protestations  of 
Consul  Larkin  and  the  assembling  of  a 
force  by  Castro  compelled  Fremont  to 
withdraw  to  the  Sacramento  Valley  and 
thence  to  Oregon,  where  he  prepared  to  re 
turn  east.  He  had  already  accomplished 
sufficient  mischief,  for  his  behavior  before 
Monterey  was  one  of  the  reasons  given  by 
President  Paredes  for  declaring  war. 

But  on  the  gth  of  May,  1846,  Fremont 
met  Lieutenant  Gillespie  at  Klamath  Lake, 
Oregon,  and  received  from  him  the  letters 
from  Senator  Benton.  Fremont  afterward 
claimed  that  Gillespie  also  brought  him  the 
news  of  the  outbreak  of  the  Mexican  War, 
but  that  would  have  been  a  physical  im 
possibility,  for  that  news  had  only  reached 
Washington  on  that  very  day,  the  day  of 
Resaca  de  la  Palma.  Fremont  likewise 
104 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  CALIFORNIA 

professed  to  have  been  given  at  the  same 
time  mysterious  secret  orders  from  Presi 
dent  Polk  that  justified  his  subsequent 
behavior,  but  what  these  were  he  never  re 
vealed,  nor  would  he  divulge  the  contents 
of  his  father-in-law's  letters.  From  what 
we  now  know  of  the  state  of  Benton's  knowl 
edge  at  the  time  of  writing  them,  these  letters 
could  have  contained  nothing  more  definite 
than  a  suggestion  that  Fremont  remain  on 
the  coast  to  await  developments  in  view  of 
possible  hostilities  with  Mexico  or  a  possi 
ble  seizure  of  California  by  Great  Britain. 

The  only  secret  orders  known  to  have 
been  sent  by  Polk  to  any  one  in  California 
were  his  instructions  to  Consul  Larkin  to 
"cultivate  the  good- will  and  friendship  of 
the  Californians"  in  any  case,  but  primarily 
to  reconcile  them  to  the  purchase  of  Cali 
fornia  by  the  United  States.  When  he 
sent  those  instructions  in  November,  1845, 
Polk  fully  expected  to  carry  out  that  pur 
chase,  and  it  would  have  been  utterly  for 
eign  to  his  purpose  to  have  created  a  second 
secret  agent  to  deliberately  undo  the  work  of 
the  first.  It  is  much  easier  to  believe  that 
the  erratic  Fremont,  whose  conceit  far  out- 
105 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

weighed  both  his  discretion  and  his  sense 
of  duty  and  who  was  burning  to  revenge 
himself  on  Jose  Castro  for  having  "humili 
ated"  him  before  Monterey,  proceeded  to 
act  on  his  own  initiative. 

We  now  come  to  the  famous  incident  of 
"Fremont's  Ride."  According  to  his  own 
account,  Fremont  learned  that  the  "Span 
iards"  were  about  to  attack  the  American 
settlers  in  California,  dashed  back  across  the 
mountains,  rallied  the  Americans,  and  saved 
California  to  the  United  States.  As  a  mat 
ter  of  fact,  when  Fremont  returned  to  Cali 
fornia,  at  the  same  time  deliberately  deceiv 
ing  Gillespie  about  his  intentions  to  return 
to  the  East,  no  attacks  were  being  made  by 
the  Mexicans  on  the  Americans.  To  be 
sure,  General  Jose  Castro  had  assembled  an 
"army"  of  70  men,  but  he  was  planning 
to  use  it  against  his  old  rival  in  office,  Gov 
ernor  Pio  Pico.  Nevertheless,  the  muster 
ing  of  this  force,  together  with  the  affair 
before  Monterey,  the  mysterious  comings 
and  goings  of  United  States  officers,  the  ap 
pearance  of  American  war-ships  off  the 
coast,  and  a  thousand  and  one  disquieting 
rumors,  most  of  which  seem  to  have  been 
106 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  CALIFORNIA 

born  in  Fremont's  camp,  was  enough  to 
stir  the  suspicious  and  fight-loving  American 
settlers  to  a  revolt  of  their  own. 

A  band  of  Americans,  prompted  by  Fre 
mont,  stole  a  herd  of  horses  destined  for 
Castro's  camp  on  June  10.  Sonoma,  the 
largest  Mexican  settlement  north  of  San 
Francisco  Bay,  was  captured  without  re 
sistance  four  days  later,  and  there  33  Amer 
icans  hoisted  a  "banner  with  the  strange 
device"  of  a  grizzly  bear,  and  proclaimed 
the  Californian  Republic.  The  insurgents 
confidently  appealed  for  aid  to  Commander 
Montgomery,  of  the  U.  S.  S.  Portsmouth, 
then  lying  in  San  Francisco  Bay,  but  that 
officer  very  properly  maintained  a  strict 
neutrality.  Fremont,  however,  lost  no 
time  in  joining  the  "Bear"  party.  Under 
his  leadership  the  little  village  of  Yerba 
Buena,  or  San  Francisco,  was  seized  and 
the  guns  spiked  in  its  deserted  presidio. 
The  "Bears"  now  numbered  200  men, 
and  had  already  fought  a  preliminary 
skirmish  with  the  Mexicans,  whose  leaders, 
Pico  and  Castro,  had  sunk  their  differences 
and  joined  their  forces  in  the  presence  of  a 
common  enemy. 

107 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

But  before  serious  hostilities  began,  Com 
mander  Montgomery  received  important 
orders  from  Commodore  Sloat.  That  aged 
and  infirm  officer  had  waited  several  days 
even  after  he  had  learned  of  the  battles  of 
Palo  Alto  and  Resaca  de  la  Palma  for  a 
formal  declaration  of  war,  till  he  had  finally 
persuaded  himself  to  take  action.  Sloat 
occupied  Monterey  on  July  7,  and  the  fol 
lowing  day  Montgomery  received  orders  to 
take  possession  of  San  Francisco  Bay.  The 
grizzly-bear  flag  was  joyfully  replaced  by 
the  stars  and  stripes,  and  the  Californian 
Republic  disappeared  from  history. 

Commodore  Stockton  in  the  Congress 
reached  Monterey  on  July  15,  twenty-four 
hours  before  the  arrival  of  the  great  ship- 
of-the-line  Collingwood,  flag-ship  of  the 
British  Pacific  squadron.  Because  of  this 
coincidence,  a  legend  soon  sprang  up  about 
a  "race"  between  Sloat  and  Stockton  on 
one  side  and  the  British  admiral  on  the 
other,  for  the  possession  of  California. 
But  nothing  could  have  been  less  like  a  race 
than  the  slow  and  uncertain  movements  of 
all  three  of  these  commanders,  and  it  would*7 
not  have  made  the  slightest  difference  to 
108 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  CALIFORNIA 

California  if  the  Collingwood  had  reached 
Monterey  even  before  the  Congress  had 
cleared  from  Honolulu.  Little  as  Great 
Britain  liked  to  see  Texas  and  California 
become  American,  its  government  liked 
still  less  the  idea  of  another  war  with  the 
United  States.  Lord  Aberdeen,  the  pre 
mier,  had  said  so  very  frankly  to  the  Mex 
icans  when  they  approached  him  with  hopes 
of  an  alliance.* 

Commodore  Sloat,  who  was  very  old  and 
infirm,  now  turned  over  his  command  to 
Stockton,  at  the  latter's  pointed  suggestion, 
and  went  home,  where  he  was  severely 
reprimanded  for  his  delay  in  taking  pos 
session  of  California.  This  task  was  rapidly 
and  easily  accomplished.  General  Jose 
Castro  and  Governor  Pio  Pico  fled  to  Mex 
ico,  and  every  town  in  California  was  soon 
occupied  by  the  Americans.  Fremont  was 
appointed  by  Stockton,  first,  to  the  com 
mand  of  a  battalion  of  local  volunteers, 
and,  later,  civil  governor. 

Despatches  were  sent  off  overland  to 
Washington  by  the  hand  of  the  famous 
frontiersman,  Kit  Carson.  But  one  hun- 

*  See  Rives,  chap.  XXXI.   , 
109 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

and  twenty  miles  west  of  Santa  Fe  Carson 
was  met  by  300  United  States  dragoons 
under  General  Kearny.  With  this  hand 
ful  of  regulars  and  900  Missouri  volunteers 
under  Colonel  Doniphan,  Kearny  had 
marched  unresisted  from  Fort  Leavenworth 
to  Santa  Fe,  occupied  that  ancient  city,  and 
annexed  all  New  Mexico  to  the  United 
States  (see  page  139).  Leaving  Doniphan's 
volunteers  behind,  Kearny  had  pushed  on 
with  the  cavalry  till  he  met  Carson  and 
learned  of  the  occupation  of  California. 
This  induced  him  to  send  back  two-thirds 
of  his  dragoons  and  proceed  with  the  re 
maining  hundred  and  a  couple  of  light 
howitzers. 

But  the  nineteen-hundred-mile  march 
from  Fort  Leavenworth  had  been  hard  on 
horseflesh,  and  when  Kearny's  command 
reached  California  only  the  officers  and 
twelve  of  the  troopers  still  retained  their 
horses.  The  rest  were  either  mounted  on 
mules  or  marched  afoot  with  the  guns  and 
wagons.  At  San  Pascual,  thirty-eight  miles 
from  San  Diego,  they  were  attacked  by  160 
superbly  mounted  Mexican  Californians, 
under  Don  Andres  Pico,  brother  of  the 
no 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  CALIFORNIA 

governor.  Repulsed  by  the  American's 
fire,  the  Californians  let  the  few  American 
horsemen  scatter  in  pursuit,  then  wheeled 
and  lanced  them  at  leisure  before  the  dra 
goons  on  mules  could  come  up.  Twenty 
Americans  were  killed  and  18  wounded, 
including  Kearny  himself,  in  this  skir 
mish.  To  add  to  the  Mexicans'  triumph, 
the  mules  harnessed  to  one  of  the  American 
howitzers  stampeded  and  took  the  gun  with 
them  into  the  Californian  lines. 

In  spite  of  his  wounds,  Kearny  joined 
Stockton's  marines,  bluejackets,  and  volun 
teers  at  San  Diego  on  December  12,  and 
on  the  20th  the  United  States  forces,  500 
strong,  started  for  Los  Angeles,  from  which 
city  the  Americans  had  been  driven  by  a 
revolt  under  the  leadership  of  Don  Andres 
Pico  and  Don  Mariano  Flores. 

This  revolt,  which  for  the  moment  had 
regained  for  Mexico  all  southern  California, 
was  short-lived.  Kearny  and  Stockton 
forced  the  passage  of  the  San  Gabriel  River 
on  January  8,  1847,  defeated  the  insurgents 
on  the  plain  of  the  Mesa  next  day,  and  made 
an  unopposed  entry  into  Lx)s  Angeles  on 
the  loth.  Flores  and  Pico,  fleeing  for  their 
in 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

lives,  met  Fremont  and  his  battalion  of 
mounted  volunteers  as  they  came  up  from 
Santa  Barbara  and  with  him  signed  a  capit 
ulation.  The  subsequent  arrival  of  ad 
ditional  troops — a  battalion  of  Mormon 
volunteers  from  Fort  Leavenworth,  and  a 
battery  of  regular  artillery  (among  whose 
officers  was  Lieutenant  William  Tecumseh 
Sherman),  which  with  a  regiment  of  New 
York  volunteers  had  been  sent  round  Cape 
Horn — put  an  end  to  Mexico's  hopes  of 
recovering  her  lost  province  of  California. 

Kearny,  who  was  Fremont's  superior 
officer,  refused  to  recognize  the  latter  as 
governor  of  California,  which  office  Kearny 
now  assumed  himself.  Fremont  was  or 
dered  to  report  himself  under  arrest  at 
Washington,  where  he  was  court-martialled 
and  dismissed  from  the  service,  but  par 
doned  and  reinstated  by  President  Polk. 
So  greatly  did  Fremont  strike  the  popular 
imagination  that  he  was  nominated  for  the 
presidency  by  the  new  Republican  party  in 
1856,  but  his  prestige  waned  rapidly  in  the 
Civil  War.  Yet,  charlatan  though  he  was 
in  many  ways,  there  are  few  more  pic- 
112 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  CALIFORNIA 

turesque  and  romantic  figures  in  our  his 
tory  than  this  teacher  of  mathematics,  the 
"Pathfinder,"  the  "Gray  Mustang,"  John 
Charles  Fremont. 


CHAPTER  IX 
MONTEREY  AND  BUENA  VISTA 

REFUSING  to  grant  an  armistice,  Tailor 
crossed  the  Rio  Grande  on  May  18  and 
occupied  Matamoros,  hastily  evacuated  by 
Arista,  who  retreated  into  the  interior  with 
all  speed.  Taylor's  "Army  of  Occupation" 
was  now  an  "Army  of  Invasion,"  with  its 
headquarters  on  Mexican  soil,  but  before 
it  could  advance  any  farther  both  men  and 
supplies  were  needed. 

The  first  eight  regiments  of  volunteers, 
called  for  by  Taylor  himself  from  Louisi 
ana  and  Texas,  reported  for  duty  before 
the  middle  of  June,  but  they  had  been 
called  out  under  the  old  militia  law  of 
1795,  for  three  months'  service  only.  At 
the  end  of  that  time  they  all  marched  home 
again,  except  the  two  Texan  cavalry  regi 
ments,  which  re-enlisted  for  twelve  months 
or  the  war.  Soon  many  more  regiments  of 
twelve-month  volunteers  poured  into  Mata 
moros,  much  sooner  than  Taylor  could  ob- 
114 


MONTEREY  AND   BUENA  VISTA 

tain  the  tents,  blankets,  baggage-wagons, 
and  the  thousand  and  one  other  things 
needed  by  even  the  smallest  army  in  a 
barren  and  hostile  land.  As  in  '61  and  '98 
there  was  great  impatience  on  the  part  of 
the  administration  and  public,  who  de 
manded  an  immediate  advance,  great  diffi 
culty  on  the  part  of  the  commanding  gen 
erals  in  explaining  why  such  an  advance 
was  not  practicable,  and  great  mortality 
among  the  raw,  recruits  in  the  hot,  unsani 
tary  camps/  Measles  and  typhoid  killed 
many  more  American  soldiers  than  did  the 
Mexican  bullets.  To  add  to  the  army's 
discomfort,  the  rainy  season,  which  had 
now  begun,  was  the  wettest  that  had  been 
known  for  many  years. 

But  though  the  carrTps  were  flooded,  the 
Rio  Grande  was  also,  and  that  usually  shal 
low  stream  was  unexpectedly  made  navi 
gable  by  steamboats.  As  soon  as  enough  of 
these  could  be  collected,  the  army  was 
transported  up-stream,  and  a  new  base 
established  at  Camargo  for  the  advance  on 
Monterey. 

Taylor's  army  marched  out  of  Camargo 
at  the  beginning  of  September  6,000  strong, 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

almost  equally  divided  between  regulars 
and  volunteers.  There  were  four  field- 
batteries  of  regular  artillery — Ridgely's, 
Bragg's,  Duncan's,  and  Taylor's — and  a 
battering-train  of  two  twenty-four-pounders 
and  a  ten-inch  mortar.  The  garrison  of 
Monterey,  commanded  by  General  Am- 
pudia,  was  about  equal  to  the  force  that 
was  marching  to  besiege  it.  Four  thousand 
Mexican  infantry  and  2,000  lancers  held 
the  town  with  more  than  forty  field-pieces, 
besides  several  heavy  guns  of  position 
mounted  on  the  fortifications. 

The  Monterey  of  1846  was  not  the  Amer 
icanized  city  of  to-day,  with  its  street-cars 
and  factories  and  100,000  inhabitants.  It 
was  a  sleepy  little  Spanish-American  town 
of  10,000  or  12,000  people,  and  narrow 
streets  that  ran  at  right  angles  to  each 
other  from  the  great  plaza  in  front  of  the 
cathedral.  Roughly  rectangular  in  shape, 
with  its  long  axis  running  east  and  west, 
Monterey  lay  on  the  north  bank  of  the 
River  of  San  Juan  de  Monterey,  that  flowed 
into  the  Rio  Grande  not  far  from  Camargo. 
The  plain  on  which  the  city  stands  is  sur 
rounded  by  high  mountains  on  all  sides 
116 


MONTEREY  AND   BUENA  VISTA 

except  the  north.  That  approach  was  well 
guarded  by  the  citadel — a  square,  bastioned 
fortification,  called  by  the  Americans  "The 
Black  Fort/'  To  the  west  rose  an  isolated 
steep  hill,  the  Loma  de  Independencia, 
crowned  by  the  huge,  unfinished  Bishop's 
Palace,  a  thick-walled  masonry  building, 
easily  converted  into  a  fort.  Beneath  its 
guns  the  road  to  Saltillo  left  the  western  end 
of  Monterey,  turned  southward  across  the 
river  and  passed  between  two  hills,  on  each 
of  which  had  been  thrown  up  a  one-gun 
battery,  called  respectively  Fort  Soldado 
and  Fort  Federacion.  The  eastern  end  of 
the  city,  where  the  river  curved  to  the 
north,  was  protected  by  three  redoubts, 
mounting  three  or  four  guns  apiece,  but 
open  in  the  rear.  Fort  Libertad  and  Fort 
Diablo  stood  nearest  the  river  in  the  order 
named.  The  most  important  of  these  three 
redoubts  was  the  one  at  the  northeast  angle 
of  the  city,  called  Fort  Teneria,  from  the 
brook  that  flowed  past  it  from  a  tannery  a 
few  blocks  within  the  town. 

Taylor's    army   arrived    and   went   into 
camp  at  the  wood  of  San  Domingo,  or  the 
"Walnut   Springs,"  three  miles  northeast 
117 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

of  Monterey  on  September  19.  Confident 
that  the  Mexicans  would  keep  strictly  on 
the  defensive,  Taylor  did  not  hesitate  to 
divide  his  own  force.  Worth's  division  of 
regulars,  with  a  regiment  of  Texan  cavalry, 
made  a  wide  detour  to  the  southwest,  seized 
and  held  the  road  to  Saltillo,  stormed  the 
two  little  batteries  that  had  guarded  it, 
and  turned  their  guns  on  the  Bishop's 
Palace.  At  three  o'clock  in  the  morning 
of  Tuesday,  the  22d,  during  a  down 
pour  of  rain,  six  companies  of  regulars  and 
200  Texans  captured  a  small  earthwork  at 
the  extreme  western  end  of  the  long  crest 
of  the  Loma  de  Independencia,  hauled  up 
a  twelve-pounder,  and  began  firing  it  into 
the  Bishop's  Palace.  Out  swarmed  the 
garrison,  reinforced  by  troops  from  the 
city,  but  the  Americans  met  their  charge 
with  so  deadly  a  fire  that  the  Mexicans  fled 
back  into  the  palace  and  out  the  other  side 
with  Worth's  men  after  them.  The  de 
tachment  that  had  captured  the  forts  across 
the  river  now  recrossed  in  haste,  Duncan's 
and  Taylor's  batteries  galloped  up,  and  the 
demoralized  defenders  were  driven  back 
into  the  city. 

118 


MONTEREY  AND  BUENA  VISTA 

Hearing  heavy  firing  at  the  other  end  of 
the  town,  Worth  advanced  next  day  down 
the  two  parallel  streets  that  led  from  the 
Bishop's  Palace  to  the  Cathedral  Plaza. 
Instead  of  storming  the  barricades  they 
encountered  at  every  corner,  the  Americans 
broke  their  way  through  the  walls  of  the 
houses,  as  the  Texans  had  done  at  San  An 
tonio  de  Bexar.  By  nightfall  Worth's  men 
had  reached  and  occupied  a  large  building 
within  one  block  of  the  plaza,  and  during 
Wednesday  night  they  brought  up  and 
mounted  three  pieces  of  artillery  on  its  roof. 
They  were  ready  to  open  a  most  destruc 
tive  fire  when  the  white  flag  was  displayed 
at  dawn. 

To  create  a  diversion  in  Worth's  favor, 
Taylor  had  ordered  an  assault  on  the  eastern 
end  of  the  city  on  Monday  morning.  The 
small  American  siege-battery,  scantily  sup 
plied  with  ammunition,  made  little  impres 
sion  on  the  citadel,  or  "Black  Fort,"  and 
when  the  First,  Third,  and  Fourth  Infan 
try  under  Twiggs  attempted  to  storm  the 
Teneria  redoubt,  they  were  raked  by  a 
flanking  fire  from  the  citadel,  and  repulsed 
with  heavy  loss.  As  the  regulars  fell  back, 
119 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

Quitman's  brigade  of  volunteers,  the  First 
Tennessee  and  the  Mississippi  Rifles  under 
Colonel  Jefferson  Davis  dashed  gallantly 
forward,  drove  back  an  attempted  sortie 
by  the  Mexican  lancers,  swept  over  the 
walls  of  Fort  Teneria  and  captured  it, 
garrison  and  all.  But  Fort  Diablo  held  out 
after  three  assaults,  and  at  nightfall  the 
Americans  withdrew,  leaving  the  First 
Kentucky  to  hold  Fort  Teneria. 

Tuesday  was  passed  in  long-range  bom 
bardment.  That  night  Ampudia  ordered 
the  evacuation  of  the  two  forts  he  still  held 
at  the  eastern  end  of  the  city,  and  concen 
trated  his  men  in  the  thick-walled  houses 
and  barricaded  streets  about  the  Cathe 
dral  Plaza.  Quitman's  brigade,  supported 
by  Garland's  regulars,  entered  the  eastern 
end  of  the  city  on  Wednesday  morning  as 
Worth,  hearing  the  heavy  fire  that  greeted 
them,  advanced  from  the  west.  Instead  of 
fighting  from  house  to  house,  Quitman's 
men  fought  their  way  doggedly  up  the  open 
street,  raked  by  grape-shot  and  swept  by 
the  fire  of  swarms  of  snipers  on  the  sand 
bagged  roofs.' 

120 


\ 
\ 


MONTEREY  AND  BUENA  VISTA 

"But  on,  still  on  our  column  kept 
Through  hissing  sheets  of  fiery  spray, 
Where  fell  the  dead  the  living  stepped 
Still  storming  on  the  guns  that  swept 
The  slippery  streets  of  Monterey." 

When  they  were  within  a  block  of  the 
plaza  the  ammunition  ran  out,  and  Lieu 
tenant  U.  S.  Grant,  of  the  Fourth  Infantry, 
volunteered  to  ride  back  for  more.  Hang 
ing  over  the  side  of  his  horse  like  an  Indian, 
Grant  galloped  out  of  the  city,  with  the 
Mexicans  firing  at  him  from  every  street  cor 
ner.  Instead  of  sending  the  ammunition, 
however,  Taylor  ordered  Quitman  to  with 
draw,  and  postponed  the  assault  until  next 
morning,  pending  a  consultation  with  Gen 
eral  Worth. 

But  on  Thursday  morning  General  Am- 
pudia  sent  Taylor  a  white  flag  and  offered 
to  capitulate.  Though  he  might  well  have 
insisted  on  an  unconditional  surrender,  Tay 
lor  was  satisfied  with  the  evacuation  of  the 
city  and  citadel.  Two  days  later  Ampu- 
.dia  and  his  army  marched  out  free  men, 
with  their  small  arms,  one  field-battery,  and 
all  the  honors  of  war — bands  playing,  flags 
121 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

flying,  and  the  American  soldiers  looking 
on  with  great  interest.  There  was  to  be  an 
armistice  for  the  next  eight  weeks,  unless  the 
truce  were  terminated  sooner  by  the  action 
of  the  government  on  either  side. 

The  American  Government  was  extremely 
displeased  with  Taylor  for  granting  the 
armistice  for  which,  however,  he  advanced 
military,  humane,  and  political  reasons. 
To  have  pressed  the  assault  would  have 
cost  many  more  American  lives — his  army 
had  already  lost  120  killed  and  350  wounded 
— and  his  small  force  could  not  have  sur 
rounded  the  city  and  prevented  the  escape 
of  the  garrison.  Nor  was  he  ready  for  an 
advance. 

"In  regard  to  the  temporary  cessation  of 
hostilities,  the  fact  that  we  are  not  at  this 
moment  (within  eleven  days  of  the  termina 
tion  of  the  period  fixed  by  the  convention) 
prepared  to  move  forward  in  force,  is  a 
sufficient  explanation  of  the  military  rea 
sons  which  dictated  this  suspension  of  arms. 
It  paralyzed  the  enemy  during  a  period 
when,  from  the  want  of  necessary  means, 
we  could  not  possibly  move.  .  .  . 

"In  the  conference  with  General  Ampudia 

122 


MONTEREY  AND   BUENA  VISTA 

I  was  distinctly  told  by  him  that  he  had 
invited  it  to  spare  the  further  effusion  of 
blood  and  because  General  Santa  Anna  had 
declared  himself  favorable  to  peace. 

"The  result  of  the  entire  operation  has 
been  to  throw  the  Mexican  army  back  more 
than  three  hundred  miles  to  the  city  of  San 
Luis  Potosi,  and  to  open  the  country  to  us, 
as  far  as  we  choose  to  penetrate  it,  up  to 
the  same  point. ": 

Paredes  was  no  longer  President — he  had 
been  driven  out  by  a  revolution  on  August 
4.  A  week  later,  General  Santa  Anna  ap 
peared  off  Vera  Cruz  on  the  British  steamer 
Arab,  and  was  permitted  to  pass  through 
the  United  States  fleet  blockading  the  port 
because  of  his  secret  agreement  with  Presi 
dent  Polk.  Though  he  did  not  have  him 
self  "elected"  President  of  Mexico  until 
December,  Santa  Anna  immediately  ob 
tained  control  of  the  government  and 
prompted  its  refusal  to  discuss  peace  on 
any  terms.  For  all  his  pacific  promises 
that  so  completely  gulled  James  K.  Polk, 
Santa  Anna  knew  his  own  countrymen  too 

*  Taylor  to  Adjutant-General  Jones,  November  8,  1846.  House 
Rep.  Doc.  60,  3Oth  Congress,  1st  Session,  359. 

123 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

well  to  imagine  that  any  Mexican  govern 
ment  could  last  for  twenty-four  hours  after 
refusing  to  fight  an  invading  enemy.  And 
no  other  Mexican  of  the  period  was  as  cap 
able  as  he  in  raising  and  organizing  large 
armies  in  a  short  time. 

As  it  permitted  the  return  of  Santa  Anna 
to  Mexico  in  1846,  so  in  1898  the  United 
States  Government  brought  the  exiled 
Aguinaldo  from  Hong-Kong  to  help  drive 
the  Spaniards  out  of  the  Philippines,  and 
in  1914  did  its  utmost  to  aid  Generals  Car- 
ranza  and  Villa  in  getting  rid  of  the  ob 
noxious  dictator  Huerta.  And  in  each  of 
the  first  two  cases,  and  possibly  the 'third, 
our  sincere  desire  for  peace  led  us  into  mak 
ing  a  present  of  their  most  efficient  leader 
to  our  opponents  in  a  long  and  difficult 
foreign  war. 

Before  the  Americans  had  fully  realized 
that  he  was  not  "favorable  to  peace/'  Santa 
Anna  was  at  San  Luis  Potosi  drilling  re 
cruits  and  concentrating  the  garrisons  from 
Monterey,  Tampico,  and  all  the  smaller 
towns  of  northern  Mexico  into  an  army. 
Tampico  had  been  taken  without  a  fight 
by  our  naval  forces  in  the  middle  of  No- 
124 


MONTEREY  AND  BUENA  VISTA 

vember,  while  Taylor  had  at  the  same  time 
caused  Saltillo  to  be  occupied  by  General 
Worth,  also  without  meeting  any  resis 
tance. 

General  Wool,  commanding  the  "Army 
of  the  Centre"  of  2,400  men,  had  left  San 
Antonio  in  September  to  march  directly 
on  the  city  of  Chihuahua,  while  Taylor  was 
advancing  farther  east.  When  Wool  was 
halted  by  the  armistice,  he  had  got  as  far 
into  Mexico  as  Monclova.  There,  on  his 
own  initiative,  subsequently  affirmed  by 
Taylor's  orders,  Wool  abandoned  the  ad 
vance  on  Chihuahua,  turned  toward  Saltillo, 
and  on  December  5,  after  marching  three 
hundred  miles  through  Mexican  territory 
without  burning  gunpowder,  occupied  Par- 
ras. 

Even  after  this  partial  concentration,  the 
few  thousand  American  troops  in  northern 
Mexico  were  scattered  over  an  irregular 
front  of  nearly  five  hundred  miles,  from 
Parras  to  Tampico,  while  swarms  of  gue 
rillas  harassed  the  plodding  wagon-trains 
bringing  supplies  from  the  Rio  Grande,  and 
Santa  Anna  mustered  his  forces  to  the 
southward  at  San  Luis  Potosi. 
125 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

Folk's  administration  realized  the  mili 
tary  weakness  of  this  position,  now  that 
the  cherished  scheme  of  making  peace 
through  Santa  Anna  had  failed.  Peace 
must  now  be  won  by  striking  harder  and 
swifter  blows  than  was  possible  in  northern 
Mexico — the  harder  and  swifter  the  better, 
as  the  war  was  no  longer  popular  in  the 
United  States.  This  was  convincingly 
shown  by  the  result  of  the  congressional 
elections  in  November,  which  turned  a 
large  Democratic  majority  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  into  a  small  majority  of 
Whigs.  To  make  matters  worse,  General 
Taylor,  who  was  getting  all  the  credit  and 
military  glory  of  the  war,  was  himself  an 
ardent  Whig. 

For  all  these  reasons,  Polk  and  his  Cabi 
net  decided  to  suspend  operations  in  the 
north  and  adopt  General  Winfield  Scott's 
plan  of  sending  an  expedition  to  Mexico 
City  by  way  of  Vera  Cruz.  General  Scott 
was  now  placed  in  command  of  this  expedi 
tion,  and  to  strengthen  his  force  he  was 
given  the  flower  of  Taylor's  army.  All  the 
regulars,  except  four  field-batteries  and  two 
squadrons  of  dragoons  under  Lieutenant- 
126 


MONTEREY  AND  BUENA  VISTA 

Colonel  May  (who  had  been  promoted  for 
his  gallantry  at  Resaca  de  la  Palma),  and 
all  the  experienced  volunteers,  except  Jef 
ferson  Davis's  Mississippi  Rifles,  were  de 
tached  from  Taylor's  command,  while  he 
was  ordered  to  fall  back  from  Saltillo  and 
remain  on  the  defensive  in  and  about  Mon 
terey. 

But  Taylor,  disregarding  Scott's  urgent 
advice  to  retreat,  remained  at  Agua  Nueva, 
eighteen  miles  south  of  Saltillo,  drilling  his 
new  volunteers.  And  General  Santa  Anna, 
stung  by  the  taunts  of  the  Mexican  news 
papers  about  the  inactivity  of  his  army 
in  its  "Capua"  of  San  Luis  Potosi,  sud 
denly  started,  on  January  27,  1847,  on  the 
two-hundred-and-forty-mile  march,  the  last 
stage  of  which  ran  through  a  waterless 
desert,  to  Saltillo.  His  lancers  captured 
two  unsuspecting  detachments  of  Arkansas 
and  Kentucky  cavalry  near  Encarnacion, 
and  it  was  not  until  the  early  hours  of  Sun 
day,  February  21,  that  May's  dragoons 
brought  in  the  news  that  2,000  Mexican 
lancers  under  General  Minon  had  turned 
Taylor's  left  and  were  swooping  down  on 
Saltillo  from  the  east.  At  midday  Major 
127 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

McCulIoch's  Texas  Rangers  galloped*  in 
from  the  south  to  report  that  Santa  Anna's 
main  army,  20,000  strong,  was  advancing 
swiftly  across  the  desert  from  Encarnacion. 

Taylor  fell  back  that  afternoon  twelve 
miles  to  Buena  Vista.  Yell's  Arkansas 
Cavalry,  left  as  a  rear-guard  to  cover  the 
removal  of  stores,  set  fire  to  everything  that 
was  left  and  galloped  off  with  what  wagons 
they  had  had  time  to  load  as  Santa  Anna's 
vanguard  dashed  into  the  blazing  town  at 
midnight. 

Ordering  General  Mifion  to  fall  on  the 
Americans'  rear,  Santa  Anna  pressed  on 
with  all  speed.  Though  his  infantrymen 
were  dropping  with  fatigue  and  tortured  by 
thirst  after  their  forced  march  across  the 
desert,  their  commander  gave  them  no  rest 
nor  even  a  chance  to  fill  their  empty  can 
teens,  but  urged  them  on  remorselessly  at  the 
double-quick  in  the  dust  of  the  mounted 
advance-guard,  while  behind  the  artillery 
drivers  flogged  their  weary  mules.  Well 
informed  as  to  the  smallness  of  Taylor's 
army,  Santa  Anna  mistook  his  opponent's 
sudden  but  orderly  retreat  for  a  demoralized 
rout.  He  was  astounded  to  find  the  Amer- 
128 


MONTEREY  AND  BUENA  VISTA 

icans  calmly  awaiting  him  at  "the  gorge  of 
Buena  Vista,  which  no  one  could  pass,  with 
any  military  eye,  without  selecting  it  as  an 
admirable  defensive  point."* 

The  ranch  and  hamlet  of  Buena  Vista,  so 
called  from  the  " beautiful  view"  it  com 
manded,  was  situated  three  miles  south  of 
Saltillo  in  the  centre  of  a  long  barren  valley 
that  runs  almost  due  north  and  south  and 
varies  from  a  mile  and  a  half  to  two  miles 
in  width.  The  road  from  San  Luis  Potosi 
ran  up  the  west  side  of  this  valley,  hugging 
the  bed  of  a  stream  that  was  then,  in  Febru 
ary  and  at  the  height  of  the  dry  season,  a 
mere  dusty  arroyo.  In  the  rainy  season 
the  heavy  drainage  down  the  slope  from 
the  hills  on  the  east  side  of  the  valley  cut 
many  steep-banked  barrancas,  or  gullies, 
sloping  from  east  to  west  and  breaking  up 
the  ground  into  irregular  plateaus  of  vary 
ing  size.  On  the  edge  of  the  largest  of  these 
plateaus  Taylor  formed  his  line  across  the 
valley.  His  left  flank,  resting  on  the  eastern 
hills,  was  weak,  but  his  right  was  very 
strong.  The  key  of  his  position  was  the 
deep,  narrow  gulch  or  pass  where  river  and 

*  Benham,  "Recollections  of  Buena  Vista,"  p.  9. 
129 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

road  ran  between  the  western  cliffs  and  the 
edge  of  the  plateau;  and  this  point,  called 
by  the  Mexicans  "La  Angostura/'  or  "The 
Narrows/'  was  held  by  a  battery  under 
Captain  Washington,  well  supported  by 
"horse,  foot,  and  dragoons." 

Santa  Anna  sent  a  white  flag  at  noon  on 
the  22d  to  demand  General  Taylor's  sur 
render,  which  was  curtly  refused.  There 
was  some  long-range  cannonading  and  skir 
mishing  that  afternoon,  but  the  real  attack 
began  at  dawn  on  the  23d. 

Santa  Anna  sent  forward  his  infantry  in 
three  heavy  columns,  each  supported  by 
cavalry,  while  he  himself  remained  in  the 
rear  in  command  of  a  strong  reserve.  The 
first  Mexican  column,  advancing  in  close 
formation  against  the  American  right,  was 
crumpled  up  by  a  storm  of  grape-shot  from 
Washington's  battery  on  the  road,  forced 
to  seek  shelter  in  the  mouths  of  the  nearest 
ravines  and  disposed  of  for  the  rest  of  the 
day.  But  the  second  column,  advancing 
diagonally  up  one  of  the  ravines,  and  the 
third  column  of  light  troops  under  Ampudia, 
keeping  to  the  upper  slope  of  the  eastern 
hills,  together  struck  the  weak  left  of  the 
130 


MONTEREY  AND  BUENA  VISTA 

American  line.  Here  three  field-pieces,  sup 
ported  by  the  Second  Indiana,  a  raw  vol 
unteer  regiment  that  had  never  before 
been  under  fire,  held  their  ground  against 
overwhelming  odds  for  half  an  hour.  But 
at  the  end  of  that  time  every  man  and 
horse  attached  to  one  of  the  guns  had  been 
shot  down,  and  the  other  two  pieces  were 
limbered  up  and  withdrawn.  An  orderly 
retreat  before  superior  numbers  was  too 
much  for  the  untrained  Second  Indiana, 
which  broke  and  fled  to  the  rear  in  utter 
rout  as  the  exultant  Mexicans  poured 
through  the  break  in  the  American  line. 

But  the  centre  held  fast,  and  from  the 
right,  where  the  assaulting  column  had  been 
repulsed,  came  Bragg' s  battery  and  the 
Second  Kentucky  to  reinforce  the  left. 
The  Arkansas  and  Kentucky  cavalry  hurled 
themselves  on  the  second  Mexican  column, 
and  though  driven  back  with  heavy  loss 
checked  it  for  many  valuable  minutes.  Am- 
pudia's  men,  driving  the  American  skir 
mishers  before  them,  had  advanced  far  up 
the  valley  and  completely  turned  the  Amer 
ican  left  flank. 

Taylor   himself  now  galloped   up   from 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

Saltillo  with  two  troops  of  dragoons,  and 
followed  by  the  Mississippi  Rifles.  That 
regiment,  joined  by  the  Third  Indiana  that 
was  no  longer  needed  to  support  Washing 
ton's  battery  on  the  right,  received  the 
Mexican  advance  with  the  utmost  steadi 
ness  and  a  deadly  fire  that  drove  in  the 
heads  of  both  columns.  The  Mexican 
cavalry  circled  round  the  American  in 
fantry  and  became  engaged  with  a  mixed 
force  of  May's  dragoons  and  Kentucky  and 
Arkansas  volunteers,  who  succeeded  in 
driving  them  away  from  Buena  Vista. 
Both  that  ranch  and  the  town  of  Saltillo 
were  filled  with  stragglers  from  the  battle 
field  who  had  stopped  their  flight  and  joined 
the  teamsters  and  camp-guards  in  defend 
ing  the  buildings  and  wagon-trains  against 
the  recurring  attacks  of  the  Mexican  cav 
alry. 

The  retreat  had  now  stopped  after  the 
American  army  had  been  bent  back  into  a 
letter  L,  reversed,  with  the  long  limb  run 
ning  north  and  south  at  right  angles  to  the 
original  line,  and  facing  the  Mexican  cav 
alry  and  infantry  who  thronged  the  east 
side  of  the  valley  above  the  heads  of  the 
132 


MONTEREY  AND  BUENA  VISTA 

ravines.  For  two  hours  or  more  both  sides 
pounded  steadily  at  each  other  with  can 
non  and  musketry,  till  the  Mexican  right 
and  centre  began  to  fall  back  under  our 
artillery  fire.  A  second  mass  of  lancers 
charged  down  the  slope  and  threatened  to 
overwhelm  the  handful  of  American  cav 
alry  at  Buena  Vista  till  Reynolds's  battery 
came  to  their  aid  with  grape-shot.  Lancers, 
dragoons,  and  mounted  volunteers,  thrust 
ing  and  hacking  in  tangled  conflict,  swept 
through  the  hamlet  of  Buena  Vista  and 
out  on  the  plain  to  the  west,  where  the 
Mexicans  galloped  off  round  the  entire 
American  army  and  rejoined  Santa  Anna. 

The  third  charge  of  the  Mexican  lancers 
was  directed  at  the  First  Mississippi.  This 
regiment  had  been  retained  by  Taylor  not 
only  because  its  colonel,  Jefferson  Davis, 
was  the  general's  son-in-law,  but  because 
Davis  was  a  West  Pointer,  who  had  brought 
his  command  to  a  high  state  of  drill  and 
efficiency.  Armed  with  percussion-lock 
Whitney  rifles,  that  far  outranged  their 
opponents'  flintlocks,  the  Mississippians 
had  caused  the  dense  masses  of  Mexican 
infantry  to  suffer  heavily,  but  the  riflemen 
133 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

had  no  bayonets  with  which  to  resist  a 
charge  of  cavalry.  Forming  his  regiment, 
into  a  re-entrant  angle,  or  letter  V,  with 
the  open  end  toward  the  lancers  and  across 
the  ravine  down  which  they  were  advancing 
rapidly  in  column  of  fours,  Davis  had  his 
men  hold  their  fire  till  the  foremost  troopers 
were  nearly  upon  them,  when  one  terrible 
volley  emptied  scores  of  Mexican  saddles 
and  sent  the  surviving  lancers  back  even 
faster  than  they  had  come. 

Hard  pressed  by  the  now  advancing  and 
exultant  American  infantry,  penned  in 
against  the  eastern  side  of  the  valley,  and 
in  imminent  danger  of  capture,  the  Mexican 
left  wing  raised  the  white  flag.  Deceived 
by  this,  the  Americans  halted  and  ceased 
firing  long  enough  for  the  Mexicans  to 
extricate  themselves  and  escape  by  the 
way  they  had  come,  after  which  they 
promptly  resumed  the  fight. 

Realizing  that  the  critical  moment  of 
the  battle  had  come,  Santa  Anna  hurled 
his  entire  reserve  against  the  angle  of  the 
American  line.  There  Lieutenant  O'Brien, 
of  the  Fourth  Artillery,  fought  his  two  field- 
pieces  till  they  were  captured,  deliberately 


MONTEREY  AND  BUENA  VISTA 

sacrificing  his  guns  to  save  time  for  Taylor 
to  bring  up  reinforcements.  Outnumbered 
and  shot  to  pieces,  the  Second  Kentucky 
and  Second  Illinois  were  being  driven  back 
down  the  nearest  ravine,  and  the  gap  in  the 
American  line  was  wide  and  ominous. 

"Speed,  speed,  artillery,  to  the  front,  where  the  hur 
ricane  of  fire 

Crushes  those  noble  regiments,  reluctant  to  retire ! 

Speed  swiftly  !  Gallop  !  Ah,  they  come  I  Again 
Bragg  climbs  the  ridge 

And  his  grape  sweeps  down  the  swarming  foe  as  a 
strong  man  moweth  sedge."* 

"A  little  more  grape,  Captain  Bragg," 
said  General  Taylor  coolly,  a  command  that 
struck  the  popular  imagination  and  was 
echoed  throughout  the  United  States  in 
the  next  presidential  campaign.!  The  Mis 
sissippi  Rifles  and  Third  Indiana  came  up 
at  the  double  as  the  Mexicans  fell  back. 
Nightfall  found  both  armies  back  in  their 
original  positions. 

So  ended  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista,  the 

*  Albert  Pike,  "Battle  of  Buena  Vista." 

t  Or  "as  Bragg  told  me,  unluckily  for  the  poetry  of  the  story, 
'Give  'em  hell,  Bragg!'  "     Benham,  p.  23. 

135 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

hardest-fought  action  of  the  war.  Both 
sides  claimed  the  victory,  and  when  he  re 
turned  to  Mexico  City  Santa  Anna  made  a 
great  show  of  the  prisoners  taken  at  En- 
carnacion  and  the  captured  American  guns. 
But  during  the  night  after  the  battle,  while 
Taylor  was  making  ready  for  another  day 
of  fighting,  Santa  Anna  abandoned  his 
wounded  and  retreated  as  hastily  as  he  had 
advanced.  Hundreds  of  his  disheartened 
and  exhausted  soldiers  died  and  thousands 
deserted  during  the  terrible  march  across 
the  waterless  waste,  and  Santa  Anna 
brought  back  to  San  Luis  Potosi  less  than 
half  of  the  20,000  he  had  led  out  so  con 
fidently  to  the  north. 

Taylor's  army  had  gone  into  action 
4,754  strong,  and  had  lost  746  officers  and 
men  killed,  wounded,  or  missing.  Count 
ing  Minon's  cavalry,  which  had  remained 
near  Saltillo  picking  up  stragglers  and 
waiting  for  the  Americans  to  retreat,  Santa 
Anna  had  had  at  least  16,000  or  17,000  ef 
fectives  within  striking  distance  on  the  day. 
of  the  battle.  Had  General  Minon  chosen 
to  disregard  the  strict  letter  of  his  orders 
and  hurled  his  2,000  lancers  on  the  Ameri- 
136 


MONTEREY  AND  BUENA  VISTA 

can  rear,   the  story  of  Buena  Vista  might 
well  have  been  written  differently. 

The  battle  of  Buena  Vista  put  an  end  to 
the  fighting  in  northern  Mexico,  made 
Jefferson  Davis  the  hero  of  the  South,  and 
Zachary  Taylor  the  next  President  of  the 
United  States. 


CHAPTER  X 
NEW  MEXICO  AND  CHIHUAHUA 

O'er  the  bitter  and  beautiful  desert,  in  the  dust  and 

heat  and  haze, 
Through  mornings  of  ruby  and  topaz  and  evenings 

of  chrysoprase, 
The  golden  noon  of  a  pitiless  June  and  the  heat  of 

a  fierce  July, 
We  tramped  and  limped  till  the  August  flame  lit 

up  the  merciless  sky, 
All  the  thirsty  way  to  Santa  Fe,  and  there,  with 

out  a  blow, 
We  took  in  a  day  to  keep  for  ay  the  land  of  New 

Mexico." 

—  CUYLER  VAN  SLYCKE. 


land  of  New  Mexico"  had  been 
formally  taken  possession  of  in  the 
name  of  the  King  of  Spain  by  Don  Juan 
de  Onate,  on  April  30,  1598.  The  Span 
iards  established  missions  among  the  Pueblo 
Indians  and  maintained  a  small  garrison  in 
Santa  Fe.  Except  for  the  great  Indian 
uprising  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  the  life  of  New  Mexico  was  placid 
138 


NEW  MEXICO  AND  CHIHUAHUA 

and  uneventful,  even  during  the  Mexican 
War  of  Independence.  After  1821  there 
was  a  constantly  increasing  trade  over  the 
old  Sante  Fe  trail  to  and  from  St.  Louis. 
The  abortive  Texan  expedition  against 
New  Mexico  in  1841  failed  without  firing  a 
shot  (see  page  53),  where  five  years  later 
the  United  States  forces,  with  an  equal  lack 
of  bloodshed,  succeeded. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  First  Mexican 
War,  Colonel  Philip  Kearny,  of  the  First 
Dragoons,  was  at  Fort  Leavenworth,  in 
what  is  now  the  State  of  Kansas,  with 
six  troops  of  his  regiment,  300  strong. 
Polk  made  Kearny  a  brigadier-general, 
in  command  of  the  "Army  of  the  West," 
consisting  of  his  own  regulars,  the  First 
Missouri  Mounted  Volunteers  under 
Colonel  Doniphan,  two  batteries  and  two 
infantry  companies,  also  of  volunteers — 
a  total  force  of  1,700  men  and  16  guns. 
Over  1,500  wagons,  3,500  mules,  and  nearly 
15,000  oxen  were  needed  for  the  transport 
and  subsistence  of  even  this  little  army 
on  its  desert  march. 

Leaving  Fort  Leavenworth  late  in  June, 
Kearny's  men  swung  down  the  Santa  Fe 


OUR  FIRST  WAR   IN  MEXICO 

trail  at  an  average  pace  of  nearly  twenty 
miles  a  day.  They  crossed  into  Mexican 
territory  at  the  trading-post  of  Bent's 
Fort  on  the  Arkansas  River,  on  August  2, 
and  ten  days  later  the  Army  of  the  West 
made  its  unopposed  entry  into  Santa  Fe. 
Armijo,  the  Mexican  governor,  who  had 
assembled  a  force  at  Apache  Canon,  lost 
heart  as  the  Americans  approached  and 
fled  into  Mexico. 

An  officer  of  Kearny's  dragoons  made 
the  following  professional  comment  on  this 
expedition: 

"The  'Army  of  the  West'  marched  from 
Bent's  Fort  with  only  rations  calculated 
to  last,  by  uninterrupted  and  most  rapid 
marches,  until  it  should  arrive  at  Santa 
Fe.  Is  this  War?  Tested  by  the  rules 
of  the  science,  this  expedition  is  anoma 
lous,  not  to  say  quixotic.  A  colonel's  com 
mand,  called  an  army,  marches  eight 
hundred  miles  beyond  its  base,  its  com 
munications  liable  to  be  cut  off  by  the 
slightest  effort  of  the  enemy — mostly 
through  a  desert — the  whole  distance  al 
most  totally  destitute  of  resources,  to 
conquer  a  territory  of  two  hundred  and 
140 


NEW  MEXICO  AND  CHIHUAHUA 

fifty    thousand    square    miles.  .  .  .     This 
is  the  art  of  war  as  practised   in  Amer 


ica/'  * 


Hoisting  the  stars  and  stripes  over  the 
old  adobe  "palace"  of  the  Spanish  gover 
nors,  General  Kearny  formally  annexed 
"The  Territory  of  New  Mexico  in  the 
United  States,"  had  an  "Organic  Law" 
for  its  government  struck  off  on  an  anti 
quated  Spanish  printing-press,  and,  in 
September,  departed  with  his  dragoons 
for  California,  leaving  Doniphan  in  pos 
session  of  Santa  Fe. 

The  Second  Missouri  Volunteers  arrived 
presently  under  Colonel  Sterling  Price, 
who  was  made  civil  governor  of  New 
Mexico.  Early  in  1847  there  was  a  formi 
dable  uprising  of  Indians  and  Mexicans, 
promptly  and  vigorously  put  down  by 
Price.  Within  a  fortnight  and  with  less 
than  400  men,  he  defeated  the  insurgents 
at  La  Canada,  where  Price  was  wounded, 
and  at  El  Embrido,  stormed  their  forti 
fied  position  at  Taos  and  forced  them  to 
surrender  their  leaders,  whom  he  tried  and 
hanged.  From  that  day  to  this,  there  has 

*  Cookc's  "Conquest  of  New  Mexico  and  California." 
141 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

been  no  more  loyal  and  patriotic  part  of 
the  United  States  than  New  Mexico. 

In  the  meanwhile,  from  September  to 
December,  1846,  Doniphan  had  gone  by 
General  Kearny's  orders  into  the  country 
of  the  Navajo  and  Zuni  Indians,  where 
he  had  shown  great  firmness  and  diplo 
macy  in  making  these  tribes  stop  fighting 
with  each  other  and  raiding  into  New 
Mexico,  as  they  had  done  for  centuries, 
release  the  prisoners  and  property  they 
had  taken  from  the  whites,  and  enter  into 
a  treaty  with  the  United  States. 

This  done,  Doniphan's  orders  read  that 
he  was  to  "proceed  to  report  with  his 
regiment  to  Brigadier-General  Wool,"  who 
was  supposed  to  be  at,  or  approaching, 
the  city  of  Chihuahua,  five  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  distant  through  the  enemy's 
country. 

Doniphan  rode  out  of  Santa  Fe  on  De 
cember  14,  1846,  at  the  head  of  856  mounted 
riflemen,  followed  by  a  long  train  of  canvas- 
topped  wagons.  Suffering  terribly  from 
cold  and  thirst  on  the  ninety-mile  stretch 
through  the  desert  of  the  Jornada  del 
Muerto,  the  advance-guard,  500  strong, 
142 


NEW  MEXICO  AND  CHIHUAHUA 

reached  Brazito,  or  the  "Little  Arm"  of 
the  Rio  Grande,  about  twenty-five  miles 
from  El  Paso,  now  called  Ciudad  Juarez. 
(The  present  city  of  El  Paso  on  the  Amer 
ican  side  of  the  river  was  not  then  in 
existence.) 

Christmas  Day  found  the  500  Missou- 
rians  taking  life  very  easy  at  Brazito.  The 
men  were  scattered  far  and  near,  looking 
for  forage  and  fire-wood,  while  Doniphan 
and  his  officers  were  playing  a  game  of 
"three-trick  loo"  for  a  fine  Mexican  horse 
they  had  captured  that  morning,  when  a 
cloud  of  dust  betrayed  the  approach  of  a 
Mexican  army. 

"Then  we  must  stop  the  game  long 
enough  to  whip  the  Mexicans,"  said  Doni 
phan,  laying  down  his  cards.  "But  re 
member  that  I  am  away  ahead  in  the 
score  and  cannot  be  beaten,  and  we'll 
play  it  out  as  soon  as  the  battle  is  over." 

But  in  the  confusion  of  the  fight,  the 
horse  was  lost,  and  the  game  was  never 
finished.* 

The  Mexicans  advanced  1,300  strong, 
500  regular  dragoons  from  Vera  Cruz 

*  Connelley's  "Doniphan's  Expedition,"  p.  371. 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

and  800  volunteers,  both  horse  and  foot, 
from  El  Paso  and  Chihuahua  with  a 
howitzer.  Outflanking  the  Americans  at 
both  ends  of  the  line,  the  Mexicans  sent 
forward  an  officer  carrying  a  black  flag 
inscribed  "Libertad  6  Muerto,"  and  painted 
pirate-wise  with  a  skull  and  cross-bones, 
who  announced  that  no  quarter  would  be 
given. 

The  fight  began  with  a  charge  against 
the  American  left  of  the  Vera  Cruz  dra 
goons,  in  all  their  glory  of  "blue  panta 
loons,  green  coats  trimmed  with  scarlet, 
and  tall  caps  plated  in  front  with  brass, 
on  the  top  of  which  fantastically  waved 
a  plume  of  horsehair  or  buffalo's  tail."  * 
But  these  gorgeous  horsemen  could  not  face 
the  heavy  rifle-fire,  and  17  mounted  Mis- 
sourians  chased  them  ignominiously  from 
the  field.  The  Chihuahua  militia  attacked 
the  American  right,  which  lay  down  and 
waited  till  the  Mexicans  were  within  sixty 
paces,  then  poured  in  a  single  volley  that 
sent  the  survivors  flying.  Forty-three 
Mexicans  were  killed,  150  wounded,  and 
5  prisoners  and  the  howitzer  were  captured 

*  Hughes's  "Doniphan's  March,"  p.  370. 
144 


NEW  MEXICO  AND  CHIHUAHUA 

in  this  skirmish,  in  which  only  7  Americans 
were  injured. 

El  Paso  was  occupied  three  days  later, 
and  Doniphan  remained  there  for  six  weeks, 
till  his  artillery  came  up.  The  Missourians 
marched  out  of  El  Paso  on  February  8, 
1847,  924  strong,  with  a  six-gun  battery 
and  their  own  wagon-train,  besides  315 
other  wagons  belonging  to  American  traders 
wishing  to  do  business  in  Chihuahua.  For 
twenty  days  this  caravan-army  continued 
its  way  unopposed,  now  crossing  deserts 
where  the  troopers  held  their  swords  in 
their  hands,  that  they  might  carry  water 
in  the  scabbards,  now  fighting  a  prairie  fire 
by  cutting  down  the  tall  grass  from  around 
the  camp  with  their  sabres. 

Unaided  by  their  national  government, 
the  citizens  of  Chihuahua  had  succeeded  in 
raising  and  equipping  an  army  of  their 
own  of  at  least  2,000  men.  "It  was  a 
division  small  indeed  in  numbers,  but  per 
fectly  well  armed.  .  .  .  The  good  Chi- 
huahuans  looked  with  pride  upon  the  result 
of  their  labors,  and  in  every  piece  of  artil 
lery,  every  musket,  in  every  object  which 
presented  itself  to  their  sight,  they  recog- 
HS 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

nized  the  fruit  of  their  personal  exertions. 
...  All  had  been  created  by  them,  all 
was  new,  all  was  brilliant.  .  .  .  The  en 
emy  were  to  appear  on  the  following  day, 
according  to  the  news  received  of  their  ap 
proach,  and  that  night  was  a  festival  in  the 
camp.  In  every  tent,  in  every  family 
group,  cheerful  toasts  were  drunk  to  the 
liberty  of  the  fatherland,  the  young  men 
abandoning  themselves  to  the  illusive  de 
lirium  of  expected  triumph,  and  thinking 
more  of  their  expedition  to  New  Mexico  to 
assist  their  brethren  to  cast  off  the  Amer 
ican  yoke  than  of  the  approaching  en 
counter,  which  they  looked  upon  as  less 
important  than  it  was."  * 

Eighteen  miles  north  of  Chihuahua  town 
the  road  from  El  Paso  ran  over  the  lowest 
and  narrowest  part  of  a  dumb-bell-shaped 
ridge,  beyond  which  lay  the  dry  bed  of  the 
Rio  Sacramento.  There  the  Mexicans  lined 
the  east  side  of  the  pass  with  tier  above  tier 
of  batteries  and  intrenchments,  apparently 
expecting  that  the  Americans  would  file 
tamely  into  the  gulch  to  be  shot  down.  But 
Doniphan  knew  a  trick  worth  two  of  that. 

*  "Noticias  por  la  Guerra,"  pp.  168-173. 
146 


NEW  MEXICO  AND  CHIHUAHUA 

Except  for  the  200  horsemen  riding  in 
advance,  nothing  was  to  be  seen  of  the 
American  army  as  it  approached  but  wagons 
— a  great  wagon-train  nearly  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  long  and  five  vehicles  abreast. 
Hidden  in  the  centre,  with  two  "prairie- 
schooners"  on  either  side  of  each  gun, 
trundled  the  field-battery,  while  between 
the  outer  files  of  wagons  rode  the  mounted 
infantry.  Instead  of  entering  the  pass,  the 
column  swung  to  the  right  and  trotted  to 
the  western  end  of  the  ridge,  where  a  steep 
but  practicable  slope  led  to  the  plateau 
above.  Up  this  slope  dashed  the  American 
battery,  and  went  into  action  on  the  pla 
teau,  supported  by  the  200  cavalrymen, 
while  the  mounted  infantry  left  their  horses 
and  deployed  to  left  and  right  of  the  guns. 
The  horses  and  wagons  were  left  in  the  rear, 
guarded  by  two  companies  of  armed  team 
sters. 

A  thousand  Mexican  lancers  with  four 
guns  dashed  forward  along  the  top  of  the 
plateau,  but  recoiled  before  the  deadly  fire 
poured  into  them,  and  retreated  behind  the 
intrenchments  in  great  disorder.  At  this 
the  exultant  Missourians,  horse,  foot,  and 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

guns,  charged  irresistibly  across  the  deep 
ravine  and  over  the  Mexican  lines.  The 
Chihuahuan  amateur  soldiery,  firing  ex 
citedly  from  the  hip,  were  shot  or  knocked 
on  the  head  by  hundreds,  their  sixteen  can 
non,  their  entire  camp  equipment,  and  even 
the  saddle-mules  and  carriages  of  the  prom 
inent  citizens  who  had  ridden  out  to  watch 
the  repulse  of  the  invaders,  all  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  Americans — only  i  of  whom 
had  been  killed  and  8  wounded. 

Doniphan  took  peaceful  possession  of 
Chihuahua  on  the  following  day,  March  i, 
and  released  a  number  of  American  citi 
zens  found  in  prison  there.  The  American 
traders  who  had  accompanied  the  army 
now  unpacked  their  wagons  and  opened  a 
fair.  After  occupying  the  city  for  two 
months,  Doniphan  got  in  touch  with  Gen 
eral  Wool  at  Saltillo,  more  than  six  hundred 
miles  away,  and  presently  joined  him  there, 
after  a  rapid  and  unresisted  march  through 
the  states  of  Durango  and  Coahuila.  The 
First  Missouri  Mounted  Volunteers  were 
reviewed  on  the  battle-field  of  Buena  Vista 
by  General  Wool  on  May  22,  and  then,  as 
their  year  of  service  was  nearly  expired, 
148 


NEW  MEXICO  AND  CHIHUAHUA 

they  were  sent  from  Saltillo  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Rio  Grande  and  thence  by  sea  to 
New  Orleans  and  up  the  Mississippi  to 
their  homes. 

Doniphan's  march  was  enthusiastically 
likened  by  William  Cullen  Bryant  to  Xeno- 
phon's  Anabasis.  The  10,000  Greeks  had 
marched  through  3,450  miles  of  hostile 
country  in  fifteen  months;  the  1,000  Mis- 
sourians  had  covered  3,500  miles  in  thir 
teen  months  by  land,  besides  2,500  miles 
by  water.  Each  had  demonstrated  the 
weakness  of  the  country  they  had  marched 
through  so  easily,  and  the  apathy  of  its 
population.  Like  the  Persian  peasantry, 
the  great  bulk  of  the  Mexican  people  were 
weary  of  wars  and  cared  little  who  ruled 
them.  After  the  organized  Mexican  forces 
were  defeated  and  dispersed,  there  was  very 
little  of  the  guerilla  warfare  that  had  been 
so  much  dreaded  by  the  Americans  when 
hostilities  began. 


149 


CHAPTER  XI 
VERA  CRUZ  AND  CERRO  GORDO 

W  INFIELD  SCOTT  and  Zachary 
Taylor  were  both  natives  of  north 
ern  Virginia,  brave  and  efficient  general 
officers  in  the  United  States  army,  and 
Whigs;  but  there  the  resemblance  ceased. 
Scott  was  a  college  graduate,  a  polished 
and  widely  travelled  man  of  the  world,  and 
military  pomp  and  circumstance  were  as 
dear  to  him  as  they  were  hateful  to  "Old 
Rough  and  Ready. "  As  huge  and  hand 
some  as  Porthos,  Scott  took  the  same  child 
ish  delight  in  dressing  himself  up  in  the 
fullest  of  full-dress  uniforms  as  did  that 
immortal  musketeer.  But  for  all  his  van 
ity  and  his  ludicrous  lack  of  a  sense  of 
humor  that  set  the  entire  country  to  chuck 
ling  over  his  famous  "hasty  plate  of  soup," 
Scott  was  a  master  of  his  profession.  In 
the  War  of  1812  he  had  organized  the  best- 
drilled  body  of  troops  on  our  side  of  the 
Niagara  frontier  and  led  them  to  victory  at 
150 


VERA  CRUZ  AND  CERRO  GORDO 

the  battle  of  Chippewa,  and  had  had  his 
left  shoulder  "pierced  by  a  British  musket- 
ball"  at  Lundy's  Lane.  Brave  though  he 
was  on  the  battle-field,  Scott  was  even  better 
at  planning  a  siege  or  a  campaign,  and  he 
spent  many  weary  weeks  perfecting  the 
details  of  the  descent  on  Vera  Cruz. 

Twelve  thousand  regulars  and  volun 
teers,  drawn  from  Taylor's  army  or  sent 
from  various  Gulf  and  Atlantic  ports,  were 
gradually  assembled  at  Lobos  Island,  a 
good  harbor  long  used  by  English  smugglers, 
within  three  days'  sail  of  Vera  Cruz.  The 
great  fleet  of  white-sailed  transports  ap 
peared  off  the  city  on  March  5,  and  were 
piloted  by  officers  of  the  blockading  squad 
ron  to  the  anchorage  of  Anton  Lizardo, 
twelve  miles  down  the  coast.  Nearer  the 
city  and  only  a  mile  offshore  lies  the  deso 
late  island  of  Sacrificios,  so  called  because 
Juan  de  Grijalva  found  traces  of  human 
sacrifice  there  in  1518.  The  beach  opposite 
this  island  was  the  place  Scott  picked  to 
land  his  men. 

As  there  was  not  enough  room  between 
Sacrificios  and  the  shore  for  all  the  trans 
ports,  the  troops  were  transferred  to  the 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

decks  of  the  war-ships,  at  the  anchorage 
off  Anton  Lizardo,  from  dawn  to  noon  on 
the  9th  of  March,  1847.  The  squadron 
then  crossed  over  and  anchored  off  the 
landing-place.  Worth's  division  of  regu 
lars,  4,500  strong,  with  two  field-batteries 
and  a  detachment  of  marines,  embarked 
in  sixty-five  large  whale-boats  that  had 
been  specially  built  for  this  purpose  by 
Scott's  orders,  and  were  manned  by  naval 
bluejackets.  Forming  in  line  of  battle, 
with  the  regimental  colors  flying  in  the 
brilliant  sunlight  from  the  leading  boat  of 
each  regiment,  the  bands  playing  and 
the  soldiers  and  seamen  cheering  from  the 
fleet,  the  whale-boats  dashed  for  the  shore, 
while  the  distant  guns  roared  harmlessly 
from  the  city  wall,  and  the  "mosquito 
flotilla"  shelled  the  sand-hills  beyond  the 
beach,  where  Scott  fully  expected  to  find 
Santa  Anna  and  his  entire  army  lurking 
in  ambush. 

"On  coming  to  within  a  hundred  yards 
of  the  shore,  the  boats  grounded  on  a  small 
sand-bar.  The  officers  and  men  imme 
diately  leaped  into  the  water,  the  latter 
carrying  their  muskets  on  their  shoulders 
152 


VERA  CRUZ  AND  CERRO  GORDO 

and  holding  their  cartridge-boxes  well  up, 
as  the  water  reached  to  their  hips  when 
wading  ashore.  As  the  boats  successively 
arrived  the  men  were  formed  on  the  beach, 
the  boats  making  all  expedition  back  to 
the  vessels  for  more  men.  All  of  the  first 
party  having  formed  into  line,  several 
regimental  colors  were  displayed,  and  a 
charge  made  to  the  heights  in  front,  but 
not  a  single  Mexican  was  to  be  seen. 
The  American  flag  was  immediately  planted 
amidst  loud  and  prolonged  cheers,  which 
were  enthusiastically  echoed  by  the  troops 
on  board."  * 

This  was  at  sunset;  by  ten  o'clock  that 
night  10,000  men,  with  two  field-batteries 
and  two  days'  rations  for  all,  had  been 
placed  safely  on  shore,  within  the  space 
of  four  hours,  without  any  mishap  or  the 
loss  of  a  single  life.  Scott's  elaborate 
plans,  aided  by  the  cordial  co-operation  of 
the  navy,  had  worked  out  perfectly.  Ad 
ditional  men,  horses,  and  supplies  were 
landed  on  the  same  spot  thereafter,  as 
fast  as  the  weather  allowed. 

Worth's    division,    followed    by    Patter- 

*  Ballentine,  p.  299. 
153 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

son's  volunteers  and  a  second  division  of 
regulars  under  Twiggs,  marched  into  posi 
tion  and  went  into  camp,  together  form 
ing  a  solid  semicircle  that  completely  in 
vested  the  landward  side  of  Vera  Cruz. 
The  fortifications  before  them,  "consisted 
of  a  series  of  small  bastions  and  redans, 
solidly  built  and  capable  of  mounting 
from  eight  to  ten  guns  each.  The  cur 
tains  by  which  they  were  connected  con 
sisted  of  a  thin  wall,  proof  only  against 
musketry  and  of  but  little  use.  None  of 
the  defenses  were  protected  by  ditches, 
as  the  shifting  sands  which  surrounded 
the  city  on  all  sides  would  have  filled  any 
ditch  in  the  event  of  a  heavy  gale/'  * 

Trenches  were  dug  and  four  batteries 
established,  under  the  direction  of  Colonel 
Totten  of  the  engineering  corps,  who  two 
years  later  was  to  begin  the  construction 
of  the  Panama  Railroad.  The  first  shovel 
ful  of  earth  was  dug  by  Captain  Robert 
Anderson,  afterward  commander  of  Fort 
Sumter.  A  formal  demand  for  the  sur 
render  of  the  city  and  castle  having  been 
made  on  March  22,  and  refused  by  the 

*  Rives,  II,  384. 
154 


VERA  CRUZ  AND  CERRO  GORDO 

commander,  General  Juan  Morales,  Scott 
decided  to  conduct  a  regular  siege,  begin 
ning  with  a  bombardment. 

But  the  army's  siege-train  was  still  at 
sea,  and  though  the  light  field-pieces  and 
mortars  that  were  brought  to  bear  dropped 
shells  in  every  part  of  the  city  and  caused 
intense  suffering  among  the  peaceful  in 
habitants,  the  walls  were  not  breached 
and  the  garrison,  sheltered  in  their  case 
mates,  were  undismayed.  Three  eight-inch 
Paixhan  guns,  firing  sixty-eight  pound 
shells,  and  three  long  thirty-two-pounders 
were  accordingly  brought  ashore  from  the 
steam-frigate  Mississippi.  Dragged  for  a 
mile  through  loose  sand,  set  up  and  served 
by  successive  details  of  seamen,  this  naval 
battery  soon  silenced  or  smashed  every 
thing  before  it.  Except  for  this  landing 
party  and  a  brief  bombardment  of  the 
Castle  of  San  Juan  de  Ulloa  by  the  two 
tiny  steamers  and  four  schooners  of  the 
"mosquito  flotilla,"  the  navy  took  no 
active  part  in  the  siege  of  Vera  Cruz. 
The  sturdy  frigates  and  steamers  of  the 
blockading  fleet,  some  of  which  after 
ward  fought  their  way  up  the  Mississippi 
155 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

under  Farragut,  were  kept  carefully  out 
of  range  of  the  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
five  guns  of  San  Juan  de  Ulloa,  which  was 
then  considered  capable  of  sinking  the 
entire  American  navy.  For  precisely  op 
posite  reasons,  not  a  shot  was  fired  at  the 
ancient  fortress  prison  by  our  battleships 
when  the  United  States  forces  took  Vera 
Cruz  for  the  second  time,  in  1914,  San 
Juan  de  Ulloa  being  then  too  weak,  as  it 
had  once  been  too  strong,  to  attack. 

At  the  end  of  four  days'  bombardment 
the  walls  were  breached  and  plans  made 
for  an  assault,  when  General  Landero,  the 
new  commander  of  the  city,  made  over 
tures  for  surrender.  (Morales,  who  had 
turned  over  the  command  to  his  subor 
dinate  when  he  saw  further  resistance  was 
hopeless,  succeeded  in  making  his  escape  in 
a  small  boat.) 

Terms  were  quickly  agreed  on  and  the 
garrison  marched  out  with  all  the  honors 
of  war,  stacked  and  surrendered  their 
arms,  and  departed  into  the  interior,  on 
parole  not  to  serve  again  in  the  war  until 
duly  exchanged.  The  citizens  of  Vera 
Cruz  were  guaranteed  protection  of  their 
156 


VERA  CRUZ  AND  CERRO  GORDO 

property  and  freedom  of  religious  worship. 
Scott's  army  made  its  formal  entry  into 
the  city  on  the  following  day,  March  29; 
the  port  was  immediately  reopened,  and  a 
period  of  great  activity  and  prosperity 
began. 

The  defense  of  Vera  Cruz  was  marked 
by  the  same  inept  passivity  as  that  of 
Monterey.  The  large  force  of  Mexican 
lancers  in  the  neighborhood  made  only 
two  attempts  to  molest  the  besieging  army, 
and  were  each  time  easily  driven  off  by 
the  regular  dragoons  and  volunteer  cav 
alry. 

The  loss  of  life  on  both  sides — 19  Amer 
icans  and  about  400  Mexicans,  during  the 
siege  of  Vera  Cruz  in  1847 — was  almost 
exactly  duplicated  at  the  second  taking  of 
the  city  by  the  Americans,  sixty-seven 
years  later.  But  while  Funston's  brigade 
could  live  for  seven  months  in  Vera  Cruz 
at  the  hottest  season  of  the  year,  without 
endangering  their  health  and  efficiency, 
Scott  had  to  hurry  his  army  away  from 
the  coast  and  into  the  interior,  or  see  his 
men  perish  of  yellow  fever.  Though  the 
raging  "northers"  swept  day  after  day 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

into  the  open  roadstead,  swamping  the 
whale-boats  and  wrecking  transports  and 
store-ships,  the  work  of  unloading  went 
on  apace,  for  far  more  terrible  than  the 
northers,  whose  season  was  now  nearly 
at  its  end,  was  the  yellow  fever  that  in 
variably  appeared  as  soon  as  they  ceased 
to  blow. 

Enough  mules,  wagons,  and  supplies  were 
at  last  landed  to  permit  General  Twiggs  to 
march  out  at  the  head  of  his  division  of 
regulars  on  April  8,  followed  next  day  by 
General  Patterson  with  two  of  his  three 
brigades  of  volunteers.  Having  crossed 
the  Tierra  Caliente  or  "Hot  Country" 
of  the  coastal  plain  in  three  days'  forced 
march,  Twiggs  reached  the  beginning  of 
the  rise  to  the  central  plateau  at  Plan 
del  Rio,  and  came  in  touch  there  with  the 
cavalry  outposts  of  a  Mexican  army  under 
Santa  Anna. 

After  the  debacle  of  the  Buena  Vista 
campaign,  Santa  Anna  had  succeeded  in 
organizing  a  force  of  5,650  men  out  of  the 
wreckage  of  his  army  at  San  Luis  Potosi. 
He  had  then  hastened  back  to  Mexico 
City,  which  was  in  a  state  of  civil  war 
158 


VERA  CRUZ  AND  CERRO  GORDO 

over  the  attempt  of  Farias,  the  liberal  and 
anti-clerical  vice-president,  to  force  the 
Catholic  Church  to  contribute  some  of 
its  immense  wealth  to  the  defense  of  the 
country.  Throughout  the  war  the  church 
behaved  in  the  most  selfish  and  unpatriotic 
manner,  but  Santa  Anna  dared  not  antag 
onize  its  mighty  power.  Instead,  he  had 
his  congress  repeal  Farias's  law  for  the 
secularization  of  part  of  the  church  prop 
erty,  and  pass  an  act  that  in  effect  deposed 
the  vice-president  from  office.  Having 
settled  these  political  difficulties,  Santa 
Anna  left  the  capital  on  April  2,  to  meet 
the  invading  army  under  Scott. 

The  defile  at  La  Joya,  about  ten  miles 
west  of  the  city  of  Jalapa,  was  where  Santa 
Anna  first  intended  to  make  his  stand,  but 
he  soon  abandoned  it  in  favor  of  the  pass 
of  Cerro  Gordo,  thirty  miles  nearer  the 
coast,  and  not  far  from  Plan  del  Rio. 

At  Plan  del  Rio  the  road  from  Vera  Cruz 
crossed  a  stone  bridge  over  the  swift-run 
ning  Rio  del  Plan,  curved  in  a  big  semi 
circle  through  broken  and  hilly  country, 
and  came  back  to  the  river  at  Cerro  Gordo. 
There  the  road. ran  through  a  narrow  pass, 


OUR   FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

with  the  river  flowing  through  a  deep, 
steep-walled  ravine  on  the  left,  and  on  the 
right  the  cone-shaped  height  of  Cerro 
Gordo,  which  dominated  all  the  surround 
ing  country.  On  top  of  this  hill,  Santa  Anna 
placed  a  six-gun  battery  in  front  of  and  at 
the  centre  of  his  line,  which  extended 
through  the  pass  with  its  rear  resting  on 
the  unfordable  river,  and  its  right  wing 
protected  by  powerful  batteries  that  swept 
the  road  and  the  ground  between  it  and 
the  river  as  the  highway  approached  the 
pass  from  Plan  del  Rio.  Santa  Anna,  who 
should  have  known  the  ground  well,  as 
Cerro  Gordo  lay  between  his  two  country 
estates  of  El  Encerro  and  Manga  de  Clavo, 
declared  that  no  other  line  of  attack  was 
possible,  and  that  the  hills  in  front  of  his 
centre  and  left  wing  were  so  rough  that 
not  even  a  rabbit  could  get  through  them. 
He  also  refused  to  fortify  the  Atalaya 
Hill*  that  stood  close  to  Cerro  Gordo  on  the 
side  away  from  the  river,  but  was  lower 
than  the  latter.  He  confidently  expected 

*  This  is  the  hill  usually  referred  to  in  American  histories  as 
"  El  Telegrafo,"  but  that  name  was  given  by  the  Mexicans  to 
Cerro  Gordo  itself,  from  the  semaphore  that  had  formerly  stood 
there. 

1 60 


VERA  CRUZ  AND  CERRO  GORDO 

that  the  Americans  would  run  their  heads 
against  his  almost  impregnable  right  wing. 

General  Twiggs,  after  reconnoitring  for 
two  days,  prepared  to  make  a  direct  frontal 
attack  with  his  division  alone,  but  fortu 
nately  General  Patterson,  his  superior  in 
rank,  came  up  in  time  to  countermand  it 
and  order  a  halt  till  the  arrival  of  General 
Scott.  A  careful  reconnoissance  was  then 
made  by  two  young  officers  of  the  engineer 
ing  corps,  Lieutenant  Beauregard  and  Cap 
tain  Robert  E.  Lee,  who  presently  found  a 
way  through  the  "rabbit-proof  country," 
whereby  the  Mexican  position  could  be 
turned. 

Twiggs's  division  of  regulars  and  Shields's 
brigade  of  volunteers  marched  out  accord 
ingly  before  daybreak  on  Sunday,  April  18, 
"over  chasms  where  the  walls  were  so 
steep  the  men  could  barely  climb  them. 
.  .  .  The  engineers,  who  had  directed  the 
opening,  led  the  way  and  the  troops  fol 
lowed.  Artillery  was  let  down  the  steep 
slopes  by  hand,  the  men  engaged  attaching 
a  strong  rope  to  the  rear  axle  and  letting  the 
guns  down  a  piece  at  a  time,  while  the  men 
at  the  rope  kept  their  ground  at  the  top, 
161 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

paying  out  gradually,  while  a  few  at  the 
front  directed  the  course  of  the  piece.  In 
like  manner  the  guns  were  drawn  up  by 
hand  the  opposite  slopes/'* 

Atalaya  Hill  was  reached  and  stormed  at 
two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  the  Americans 
driving  the  Mexican  outpost  from  the  crest 
with  small  loss,  but  suffering  severely  as 
they  pursued  the  fugitives  down  the  far 
ther  slope,  swept  by  the  battery  on  Cerro 
Gordo.  The  column  halted  for  the  rest  of 
that  day  and  the  following  night,  when 
Captain  Lee  directed  the  bringing  up  and 
placing  of  a  twenty-four  pound  gun  and  two 
howitzers,  with  great  labor  and  under  cover 
of  darkness,  on  the  summit  of  Atalaya.  At 
the  same  time  an  eight-inch  howitzer  was 
being  mounted  by  Scott's  direction  on  the 
heights  across  the  river.  At  the  sound  of 
Twiggs's  guns  on  Atalaya  at  dawn  Pillow's 
brigade  of  volunteers  were  to  make  a  direct 
frontal  attack  on  the  strong  batteries  on 
the  Mexican  right,  and  clear  the  pass  for 
the  cavalry  and  field-battery  that  were  to 
dash  forward  in  pursuit  as  soon  as  the  Mex 
icans  began  their  retreat. 

*  Grant,  "Memoirs,"  I,  132. 
162 


VERA  CRUZ  AND  CERRO  GORDO 

At  the  break  of  day  a  picked  brigade  of 
Twiggs  Js  regulars,  with  shells  and  "war 
rockets"  screaming  over  their  heads  from 
the  battery  on  the  crest,  dashed  down  the 
slope  of  Atalaya  Hill,  up  Cerro  Gordo,  and 
over  the  Mexican  breastworks.  As  the  de 
fenders  broke  and  fled,  the  Americans 
turned  their  own  guns  on  them  and  the 
troops  drawn  up  in  the  pass  below.  At  the 
same  time  Shields's  brigade  of  volunteers 
charged  the  extreme  Mexican  left.  There 
Santa  Anna  and  all  his  cavalry  were  sta 
tioned  with  a  battery,  but  rather  than  be 
captured  or  driven  into  the  river,  they  left 
the  guns  and  fled  up  the  road  to  Jalapa. 

Pillow's  brigade,  guided  by  Lieutenant 
George  B.  McClellan  of  the  engineers,  had 
dashed  gallantly  forward  against  the  bat 
teries  on  the  Mexican  right,  but  the  volun 
teers  encountered  such  difficult  ground  and 
so  deadly  a  fire  that  they  fell  back  with 
considerable  loss,  General  Pillow  himself 
being  badly  wounded.  But  when  the 
force  holding  those  batteries  realized  that 
Twiggs  had  seized  the  pass  in  their  rear  and 
cut  off  their  retreat,  they  hoisted  the  white 
flag  and  surrendered.  Twiggs  then  started 
163 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

up  the  road  in  pursuit  of  the  others,  as  did 
the  cavalry  and  field-battery  detailed  for 
the  purpose  as  soon  as  the  road  was  cleared. 
But  Santa  Anna  had  had  too  long  a  start. 

All  that  had  escaped  of  the  Mexican  army 
was  widely  dispersed  and  utterly  demoral 
ized.  Its  artillery,  ammunition,  camp,  and 
entire  equipment  had  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  the  Americans,  and  3,000  officers  and 
men,  including  5  generals,  were  prisoners 
of  war.  Like  the  garrison  of  Vera  Cruz, 
these  prisoners  were  released  on  parole, 
because  of  the  difficulty  of  guarding  them 
and  also  because  Scott  expected  that  such 
leniency  would  "diminish  the  resistance  of 
other  garrisons  in  our  march. " 

"I  am  also  somewhat  embarrassed/'  said 
Scott,  in  his  report  to  the  Secretary  of  War, 
"with  the  pieces  of  artillery — all  bronze — 
that  we  have  captured.  It  would  take  a 
brigade  and  half  the  mules  of  this  army  to 
transport  them  fifty  miles.  A  field-battery 
I  shall  take  for  service  with  the  army,  but 
the  heavy  metal  must  be  collected  and  left 
here  for  the  present.  We  have  our  own 
siege-train,  and  the  proper  carriages  with 


us." 


164 


VERA  CRUZ  AND  CERRO  GORDO 

Counting  Worth's  division,  which  did  not 
get  into  the  fight,  there  had  been  about 
9,000  Americans  to  drive  8,000  Mexicans 
out  of  Cerro  Gordo.  How  many  of  Santa 
Anna's  men  were  killed  and  wounded  can 
only  be  conjectured;  Scott's  army  lost  263 
killed  and  368  wounded. 

Jalapa  was  occupied  without  resistance 
the  day  after  the  battle.  From  there  Scott 
sent  forward  Worth  with  his  division  of 
regulars  and  three  volunteer  regiments 
under  Quitman.  Leaving  one  of  the  latter 
to  garrison  the  Castle  of  Perote,  a  famous 
old  Spanish  fortress  that  he  found  aban 
doned  on  April  22,  Worth  pushed  on  over  the 
mountains,  easily  brushed  aside  2,000  or 
3,000  Mexican  cavalrymen  under  Santa 
Anna  at  Amazoc  on  May  15,  and  three 
days  later  made  a  triumphant  and  unre- 
sisted  entry  into  Puebla,  the  second  city  of 
the  Mexican  Republic. 

"The  singular  appearance  of  some  of  the 
soldiers,"  says  a  Mexican  historian,  "their 
wagons,  their  artillery,  their  large  horses, 
all  attracted  the  curiosity  of  the  multitude, 
and  at  the  corners  and  squares  an  immense 
crowd  surrounded  the  new  Conquistadores. 
165 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

The  latter,  extremely  fatigued,  confiding  in 
the  mutual  guarantees  exchanged  between 
the  city  government  and  General  Worth, 
or  perhaps  despising  a  people  who  so  easily 
permitted  the  occupation  of  their  terri 
tory,  stacked  arms  and  bivouacked  in  the 
plaza.  .  .  .  There  is  no  doubt  that  more 
than  10,000  persons  were  gathered  in  the 
plaza  and  the  surrounding  streets.  One 
cry,  one  effort,  the  heart  of  one  determined 
man  would  have  sufficed.  If  once  this 
multitude  had  pressed  in  upon  the  enemy 
they  would  inevitably  have  perished.  Noth 
ing  was  done.  .  .  ."* 

*  "Noticias,"  p.  227. 


166 


CHAPTER  XII 
FROM  PUEBLA  TO  CHURUBUSCO 

XJEGOTIATIONS  for  peace  kept  the 
jL^I  American  army  from  advancing  be 
yond  Puebla  for  nearly  three  months  after 
Worth's  bivouac  in  the  plaza.  Hoping 
that  the  recent  victories  would  induce  the 
Mexicans  to  treat  for  the  conclusion  of  the 
war  that  threatened  his  own  political  de 
struction,  Polk  sent  Mr.  Nicholas  Trist, 
chief  clerk  of  the  State  Department,  as  a 
special  commissioner  to  abide  at  Scott's 
headquarters  with  authority  to  make  and 
sign  a  treaty  with  Santa  Anna's  govern 
ment. 

Though  he  immediately  got  into  a  furious 
quarrel  with  Scott,  who  had  diplomatic 
ambitions  of  his  own  and  was  enraged  at  the 
thought  of  yielding  up  any  of  his  authority 
to  a  civilian,  Trist  soon  made  a  firm  friend 
of  the  general,  and  got  in  touch  with  the 
Mexican  Government  through  the  medium 
of  the  British  minister.  But  neither  Santa 
167 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

Anna  nor  his  congress  dared  incur  the  wrath 
of  the  Mexican  people  by  surrendering  New 
Mexico  and  California  as  the  price  of  peace. 
If  they  did  so,  a  domestic  revolution  was 
certain,  while  the  repulse  of  Scott's  army 
was  possible,  particularly  as  the  delay  had 
given  the  Mexicans  time  to  organize  the 
defense  of  their  capital. 

But  the  delay  had  also  helped  the  in 
vaders.  All  seven  of  Scott's  volunteer 
regiments  had  been  sent  home  in  June  at 
the  expiration  of  their  year's  enlistment, 
and  it  took  time  to  replace  them  with  vol 
unteers  of  a  later,  levy.  Ten  new  regiments 
of  infantry  had  been  added  to  the  regular 
army  for  the  rest  of  the  war,  and  these 
were  sent  south  as  fast  as  they  could  be 
raised  and  organized.  Yellow  fever  raged 
at  Vera  Cruz,  and  though  the  arriving 
troops  were  marched  as  fast  as  possible  into 
the  cool  and  healthy  hill-country,  yet  there 
were  more  than  3,000  sick  in  the  various 
hospitals  by  the  end  of  June.  Even  worse 
than  "Yellow  Jack"  was  dysentery,  caused 
by  "excessive  indulgence  in  fruits,  which  it 
was  found  impossible  to  keep  from  the 
troops."  But  the  general  health  of  the 
1 68 


FROM  PUEBLA  TO  CHURUBUSCO 

army,  in  the  delightful  climate  of  Puebla, 
was  excellent.  Between  drills  the  soldiers 
mingled  amicably  with  the  townspeople, 
who  even  to-day  remember  the  army  that 
actually  paid  cash  for  supplies  instead  of 
seizing  them. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  this  liberal  policy,  Scott 
wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  War: 

"Our  difficulties  lie  in  gathering  subsis 
tence  from  a  country  covered  with  exas 
perated  guerillas  and  banditti,  and  main 
taining  with  inadequate  garrisons  and 
escorts  communications  with  the  rear." 

For  the  latter  reason,  though  he  himself 
had  not  feared  to  ride  from  Jalapa  to 
Puebla  far  in  advance  of  the  main  body  of 
his  army  and  with  an  escort  of  only  250 
dragoons,  Scott  decided  to  cut  the  long 
cord  that  bound  him  to  his  base  at  Vera 
Cruz  and  advance  like  Cortez  after  burning 
his  ships.  When  the  news  of  this  decision 
reached  London,  the  aged  Duke  of  Welling 
ton,  who  had  been  following  the  campaign 
with  great  interest,  shook  his  head  gravely 
and  gave  Scott  up  for  lost. 

Leaving  a  garrison  of  393  Pennsylvania 
volunteers  under  Colonel  Childs  of  the 
169 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO. 

regular  army  to  guard  the  1,800  American 
sick  in  the  hospitals  and  hold  a  city  of 
80,000  Mexicans,  Scott  led  out  his  army  on 
August  7  on  the  road  to  the  city  of  Mexico. 
He  had  in  all  10,738  officers  and  men,  or 
ganized  in  four  divisions  of  infantry,  com 
manded  respectively  by  Generals  Worth, 
Twiggs,  Pillow,  and  Quitman,  and  an  inde 
pendent  brigade  of  dragoons  under  Colonel 
Harney.  With  this  force,  Scott  confidently 
advanced  to  attack  a  city  of  200,000  in 
habitants,  defended  by  an  army  that  was 
twice,  and  that  he  supposed  to  be  fully 
three  times,  as  numerous  as  his  own. 

Marching  unresisted  through  deep  de 
files  where  100  men  could  have  stopped 
an  army,  the  long  blue  columns  climbed 
higher  and  higher  till  they  passed  the  great 
snow-covered  peak  of  Iztaccihuatl,  and 
came,  on  the  morning  of  the  third  day,  to 
the  summit  of  the  pass,  more  than  ten 
thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea. 
Before  and  below  them  lay  the  valley  of 
Mexico,  beyond  a  semicircular  chain  of 
lakes  lay  the  capital  city. 

"The  direct  road  from  Puebla,  winding 
down  from  the  mountain  heights  near  the 
170 


FROM  PUEBLA  TO  CHURUBUSCO 

conspicuous  and  snow-covered  mass  of 
IztaccihuatI,  passed  along  the  northeasterly 
shore  of  Lake  Chalco,  the  southernmost  of 
the  chain  of  lakes,  and  then  upon  an  ancient 
causeway  over  the  isthmus  lying  between 
Lakes  Xochimilco  and  Texcoco.  On  this 
isthmus  a  rocky  hill  known  as  the  Pefion 
Viejo  was  made  strong  by  every  device  of 
the  engineering  art.  The  direct  access  to 
the  city  was  thus  controlled  by  what  was 
believed  to  be  an  impregnable  position,  and 
the  isthmus  was  further  strengthened  by 
strong  works  thrown  up  in  the  neighboring 
village  of  Mexicalcingo."  * 

At  the  sound  of  a  signal-gun  announcing 
the  approach  of  Scott's  army  on  the  after 
noon  of  August  9  thousands  of  enthusiastic 
volunteers,  accompanied  by  bands  playing 
patriotic  airs,  clergy  invoking  blessings,  and 
a  great  part  of  the  population  of  the  capital 
poured  out  from  the  city  to  the  Pefion  to 
help  repulse  the  invader.  But  Scott  was 
not  the  sort  of  general  to  order  an  impetu 
ous  frontal  attack  on  the  carefully  prepared 
trenches  and  batteries  before  him.  Halt 
ing  at  Ayotla,  in  front  of  the  Pefion,  he 

*  Rives,  II,  453. 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

spent  the  next  two  days  reconnoitring  the 
ground,  and  had  almost  decided  to  turn 
Santa  Anna's  right  by  an  attack  on  Mex- 
icalcingo  when  Colonel  Duncan,  an  artil 
lery  officer  of  Worth's  division,  discovered 
a  practicable  path  round  the  southern  end 
of  Lake  Chalco,  between  the  marshy  shore 
of  the  lake  and  the  steep  slope  of  the  hills 
at  the  southern  end  of  the  valley. 

Marching  by  this  route,  the  American 
army  came  on  August  16  to  the  village  of 
San  Augustin,  on  the  road  from  the  Pacific 
port  of  Acapulco  to  Mexico  City.  But  be 
tween  San  Augustin  and  the  capital  the 
Acapulco  road  passed  first  by  the  great 
hacienda  of  San  Antonio  and  then  through 
the  hamlet  and  over  the  bridge  of  Churu- 
busco,  both  strongly  built  places  held  by 
large  forces  of  Mexicans.  A  direct  advance 
over  the  mile  of  open  road  northward  from 
San  Augustin  to  the  castle-like  buildings  of 
San  Antonio  would  have  cost  many  lives. 
Again  a  turning  movement  had  to  be  made, 
though  the  swampy  fields  to  the  east  of  the 
road  were  too  soft  for  the  passage  of  ar 
tillery,  while  to  the  west  lay  a  great  field  of 
lava  called  the  Pedregal. 
172 


FROM   PUEBLA  TO  CHURUBUSCO 

"I  cannot  better  describe  this  Pedregal," 
declared  a  young  naval  officer  with  Scott's 
army,  "than  by  comparing  it  to  a  sea,  which 
having  been  lashed  into  fury  by  a  tempest, 
had  been  suddenly  transformed  by  the  wand 
of  an  enchanter  into  stone.5'* 

It  was  no  easy  task  to  move  an  army 
across  this  jagged  mass  of  lava,  but  five 
miles  of  it  had  to  be  crossed  to  reach  the 
next  road  to  the  north.  This  was  a  local 
highway  running  from  the  little  village  of 
Contreras  through  the  town  of  San  Angel 
to  Mexico  City,  and  following  the  ravine 
of  the  Magdalena  Brook  till  that  stream 
flowed  into  the  Churubusco  River.  A 
mule  path  through  the  Pedregal  from  San 
Augustin  to  the  Contreras  road  was  dis 
covered  by  Scott's  engineers  and  widened 
to  permit  the  passage  of  artillery  by  the 
labor  of  Pillow's  division,  which  led  the 
advance  over  it  on  the  iQth. 

But  when  Worth's  advance-guard  came 
to  the  edge  of  the  Pedregal  they  found  the 
exit  blocked  by  a  strong  force  of  Mexicans, 


*  Raphael  Semmes,  "Service  Afloat  and  Ashore,"  p.  393.  He 
is  best  known  to  history  as  the  captain  of  the  Confederate  com 
merce-destroyer  Alabama. 

173 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

intrenched  on  a  hill  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Contreras  road.  This  hill  was  near  a  ranch 
called  Padierna,  which  the  Americans  con 
fused  with  the  village  of  Contreras,  a  mile 
farther  south  at  the  end  of  the  road.  Be 
cause  of  this  confusion  the  fight  that  fol 
lowed  is  called  by  us  the  battle  of  Con 
treras,  but  by  the  Mexicans  the  battle  of 
Padierna. 

"War-rockets,"  mountain  howitzers,  and 
Magruder's  field-battery — which  had  been 
armed  with  guns  captured  at  Cerro  Gordo 
and  had  "Stonewall'*  Jackson  for  its  second 
lieutenant — were  brought  up  by  Worth  and 
opened  fire  on  the  hill.  But  General  Val 
encia,  who  held  that  position  with  4,000 
men  of  the  Mexican  "Army  of  the  North," 
had  twenty-two  guns  in  position.  His  heavy 
cannon  soon  drove  the  American  guns  and 
skirmishers  back  into  the  Pedregal.  "Noth 
ing  but  their  excessively  bad  firing,"  writes 
one  of  Magruder's  gunners,  "had  saved  our 
battery  from  being  annihilated." 

General  Valencia,  elated  with  his  suc 
cess,  reported  a  great  victory  and  refused 
to  obey  the  orders  sent  him  by  Santa 
Anna  to  fall  back  on  the  capital.  That 


9 
~r 

Ui 

a 

5 


'-V 


FROM   PUEBLA  TO  CHURUBUSCO 

night  while  Valencia  made  merry  in  his 
tent,  three  brigades  of  United  States  reg 
ulars,  and  one  of  volunteers  were  advanc 
ing  through  the  Fed  regal  to  turn  his  left 
flank,  "passing  over  volcanic  rocks  and 
across  large  fissures  barely  narrow  enough 
for  the  men  to  get  across  by  leaping." 
Men  who  cross  that  lava-field  to-day 
find  it  no  mean  task  for  a  trained  athlete 
unburdened  and  in  broad  daylight  to 
follow  the  trail  those  soldiers,  encumbered 
with  knapsack  and  flintlock,  hurried  over 
in  pitchy  darkness.  Striking  the  Con- 
treras  road  higher  up,  they  cut  off  Valen 
cia  from  the  city  and  caused  Santa  Anna, 
who  was  advancing  with  a  brigade  to  his 
relief,  to  fall  back  to  San  Angel  and  leave 
Valencia,  whom  he  distrusted  and  hated 
as  an  old  political  rival,  to  his  fate. 

The  four  American  brigades,  commanded 
by  General  Persifer  F.  Smith,  the  senior 
brigadier,  spent  the  night  in  and  about 
the  village  of  San  Geronimo  in  a  heavy 
downpour  of  rain.  During  this  storm 
Captain  Robert  E.  Lee  made  his  way 
back  across  the  Pedregal:  "The  greatest 
feat  of  physical  and  moral  courage  per- 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

formed  by  any  individual  in  my  knowl 
edge,  pending  the  campaign,"  in  the  opin 
ion  of  General  Scott  to  whom  Lee  reported 
at  San  Augustin  in  time  to  arrange  for  a 
demonstration  in  Valencia's  front  to  dis 
tract  his  attention  while  Smith  attacked 
his  rear. 

At  sunrise  on  Friday,  August  20, 
Smith's,  Riley's,  and  Cadwalader's  brigades 
crept  quietly  up  the  ravines  that  led  to 
the  left  and  rear  of  Valencia's  position, 
reloaded  and  primed  their  rain-soaked  mus 
kets,  fixed  bayonets,  and  charged.  Two 
Mexican  guns  were  hastily  pointed  and 
fired  to  the  rear,  there  was  a  feeble  sputter 
of  musketry,  and  then  the  charge  struck 
home.  In  exactly  seventeen  minutes  the 
fight  was  over,  and  the  utterly  routed 
Mexicans  were  riding  or  running  their 
fastest  up  the  road  to  San  Angel. 

"Thus/'  reported  Scott,  "was  the  great 
victory  at  Contreras  achieved;  one  road 
to  the  capital  opened;  700  of  the  enemy 
killed;  813  prisoners,  including  among  88 
officers  4  generals;  besides  many  colors 
and  standards;  22  pieces  of  brass  ordnance, 
half  of  large  caliber;  thousands  of  small 
176 


FROM  PUEBLA  TO  CHURUBUSCO 

arms  and  accoutrements;  an  immense 
quantity  of  shot,  shells,  powder,  and  car 
tridges;  700  pack-mules,  many  horses,  etc., 
etc. — all  in  our  hands.  '' 

Among  the  captured  cannon  were  the 
two  brass  six-pounders  that  had  been  lost 
by  Lieutenant  O'Brien  of  the  Fourth  Artil 
lery  at  Buena  Vista,  and  were  retaken  at 
Contreras  by  a  company  of  the  same  regi 
ment. 

Scott  himself  led  Pillow's  and  Twiggs's 
divisions  in  pursuit  of  the  flying  Mexicans 
up  the  road  from  Contreras  through  San 
Angel  and  beyond.  Swinging  to  the  east, 
Scott  quickly  drove  a  small  force  of  Mex 
icans  out  of  the  ancient  village  of  Coyoacan, 
where  Cortez  had  first  established  the 
viceregal  capital  of  New  Spain.  This  was 
an  important  cross-roads,  in  the  rear  of 
San  Antonio,  from  which  post  the  Mexican 
garrison  were  retreating  as  fast  as  they 
could  run,  with  Worth's  division  in  close 
pursuit,  up  the  Acapulco  road  to  the 
bridge  at  Churubusco. 

A  tfU-de-ponty  a  strong  earthwork  mount 
ing  five  guns  and  protected  by  a  wet 
ditch  filled  waist-deep  with  river  water, 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

guarded  the  southern  end  of  the  bridge. 
A  quarter  of  a  mile  to  the  southwest, 
toward  Coyoacan,  stands  the  picturesque 
Convent  of  San  Mateo,  built  in  1678,  and 
designed  like  all  the  Spanish-American 
ecclesiastical  edifices  of  that  period,  for  a 
fortress  in  time  of  need.  Round  it  ran  a 
thick  stone  wall  twelve  feet  high,  scaffolded 
within  so  that  infantry  might  fire  over  the 
top,  and  protected  without  by  an  earth 
work  mounting  six  guns.  The  main  strength 
of  the  convent  garrison  consisted  of  the 
crack  Independencia  and  Bravo  battalions 
of  the  National  Guard,  the  flower  of  Mexico 
City,  while  the  tete-de-pont  was  held  by 
the  Battalion  of  San  Patricio,  composed 
of  deserters,  most  of  whom  were  Irish 
Catholics  from  the  American  army.  Across 
the  bridge  on  the  north  bank  of  the  shallow 
Churubusco  River,  which  had  been  artifi 
cially  straightened  into  an  irrigation  ditch 
running  due  east  and  west,  were  drawn  up 
dense  masses  of  Mexican  infantry  in  re 
serve. 

The  guns  of  the  tete-de-pont,  opening  on 
the  head  of  Worth's   column,  made  that 
general  deploy  his  division  to  the  left  and 
178 


FROM   PUEBLA  TO  CHURUBUSCO 

right  of  the  road,  but  the  heavy  cross-fire 
from  the  convent  forced  his  left  wing  back 
on  the  centre,  till  his  whole  force  had  with 
drawn  to  the  east  of  the  Acapulco  road. 
There,  with  their  line  curving  concavely 
from  the  river  on  their  right  to  the  road 
on  their  left,  Worth's  regulars  stood  or 
advanced  slowly  for  two  hours  through  the 
swampy  fields,  suffering  severely,  though 
covered  by  the  tall  uncut  corn,  from  the 
fire  of  the  renegades  in  the  tete-de-pont. 

Twiggs  at  the  same  time  was  advancing 
independently  against  the  convent,  also 
through  corn-fields  and  under  a  withering 
fire.  An  artillery  duel  raged  between  the 
six  Mexican  guns  at  the  convent  and  an 
American  light  battery.  Shields's  brigade 
of  New  York  volunteers  and  the  "Pal 
metto  Regiment"  of  South  Carolina,  to 
gether  with  a  brigade  of  "new  regulars," 
under  Franklin  Pierce,  later  President  of 
the  United  States,  forded  the  river  and 
advanced  east  along  its  north  bank.  These 
raw  volunteers  and  recruits,  raked  by  a 
flanking  fire  from  the  convent,  and  faced 
by  thousands  of  Mexicans  under  Santa 
Anna  himself,  were  soon  forced  to  halt 
179 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

but  stood  their  ground  sturdily.  So  three 
independent  and  bloody  actions  raged  in 
and  about  Churubusco. 

At  last  the  Mexican  troops  lining  the 
north  bank  of  the  river  began  to  retreat, 
while  the  defenders  of  the  tete-de-pont  and 
the  convent  ran  out  of  ammunition.  As 
their  fire  slackened,  a  mixed  force  of  Worth's 
men  waded  across  the  river  and  began  fir 
ing  into  the  rear  of  the  ftte-de-pont.  At 
this,  their  comrades  charged  across  the 
ditch  and  over  the  earthwork.  The  de 
fenders  were  quickly  killed,  captured,  or 
put  to  flight;  the  fugitives  streaming  over 
the  bridge  and  mingling  with  the  reserve 
troops  north  of  the  river  in  a  disorderly 
retreat  to  the  city.  After  them  came 
Worth,  Pierce,  and  Shields  with  their  in 
fantry,  while  Harney's  dragoons  charged 
up  to  the  very  guns  of  the  San  Antonio 
gate  of  Mexico  City. 

"At  this  moment,"  says  a  Mexican  his 
torian,  "a  mounted  American  officer,  in  uni 
form  of  blue,  penetrated  the  low  earthen 
rampart,  sword  in  hand,  dealing  sabre 
blows  and  falling  wounded  on  the  es 
planade.  Many  swords  were  drawn  to 
1 80 


FROM  PUEBLA  TO  CHURUBUSCO 

kill  him,  but  others  also  hastened  to  de 
fend  him  on  seeing  him  fall.  He  rose 
crippled,  radiant  with  valor,  and  smiling 
at  the  felicity  of  being  at  the  gates  of  the 
capital."  * 

So  did  "Dashing  Phil  Kearny,"  then  a 
captain  in  the  First  Dragoons,  lose  his  arm, 
while  Major  Mills  of  the  Pennsylvania  in 
fantry,  who  had  joined  the  charge  as  a  vol 
unteer,  was  killed  inside  the  gate  itself. 

As  Worth  went  over  the  titc-de-pont, 
Twiggs  stormed  the  battery  outside  the 
convent  wall.  The  church  itself  held  out 
a  little  longer,  but  the  defenders,  when 
they  saw  they  were  surrounded  and  their 
own  guns  turned  against  them,  displayed 
the  white  flag  from  the  belfry. 

One  hundred  and  four  officers  and  1,155 
men  surrendered  at  the  convent.  All  the 
American  deserters  captured  at  the  bridge 
were  either  hung,  or  branded  with  a  red- 
hot  iron  with  the  letter  "D,"  in  accor 
dance  with  the  brutal  military  code  of  the 
period.  Curiously  enough,  a  company  of 
Mexican  renegades  fought  at  Churubusco 
on  the  American  side. 

*  "Noticias,"  p.  286. 
181 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

The  two  days'  fighting  that  gained  Scott 
the  whole  valley  south  of  Mexico  City  cost 
his  army  137  killed,  879  wounded,  and  40 
missing — a  total  loss  of  1,056,  or  more  than 
a  tenth  of  its  total  strength.  The  Mexican 
loss  cannot  be  computed  with  any  exact 
ness,  but  counting  the  very  many  deser 
tions,  Santa  Anna's  army  must  have  been 
reduced  by  at  least  6,000  men,  besides  the 
guns  and  equipment  captured.  The  moral 
havoc  created  by  these  two  crushing  de 
feats  was  also  very  great,  though  somewhat 
offset  by  the  gallant  defense  of  Churubusco 
and  the  repulse  of  the  pursuers  at  the  San 
Antonio  gate. 

Most  military  critics  agree  that  Churu 
busco  was  a  needless  battle.  By  menacing 
its  rear  and  allowing  the  garrison  time  to 
retreat,  Scott  could  have  taken  that  place 
as  he  took  San  Antonio,  without  losing  a 
man.  But  he  had  not  expected  to  find 
Churubusco  strongly  held,  and  Scott's  slow- 
working  mind  was  better  at  planning  a 
pitched  battle  than  evading  an  unexpected 
obstacle  in  the  field. 

Ordering  his  divisional  commanders  "to 
take  up  battering  or  assaulting  positions," 
182 


FROM   PUEBLA  TO  CHURUBUSCO 

Scott  sat  down  in  his  headquarters  at  San 
Augustin  to  draw  up  a  summons  for  the 
surrender  of  the  city  to  be  delivered  in  the 
morning. 

"But,"  wrote  the  war  correspondent  of 
the  New  Orleans  Picayune,  "the  darkness 
of  night  had  hardly  fallen  on  the  2oth 
of  August,  and  the  smoke  of  Churubusco 
was  still  hanging  lazily  over  the  low  and 
marshy  grounds,  when  a  coach  containing 
a  deputation  from  the  English  embassy 
came  out  of  the  city  and  approached 
Worth's  pickets.  ...  As  their  mission  was 
to  General  Scott,  they  were  permitted  to 
pass  the  outposts.  It  was  now  evident  that 
Santa  Anna,  unable  further  to  continue  the 
defense  with  his  army  broken  and  dispirited, 
was  disposed  to  open  negotiations  for  an 

*          •  9  9  *&• 

armistice. 

*  George  W.  Kendall,  "The  War  Between  the  United  States 
and  Mexico,"  illustrated,  p.  35. 


183 


CHAPTER  XIII 
THE  FALL  OF  THE  CITY  OF  MEXICO 

AN"  armistice  was  promptly  granted  by 
Scott,  who  wanted  peace  and  the 
political  prestige  it  would  bring  him  as 
ardently  as  Santa  Anna  desired  a  breathing 
space.  Commissioners  were  appointed  on 
each  side  to  discuss  terms.  On  the  day  they 
met,  a  week  after  Churubusco,  some  Amer 
ican  quartermaster's  department  wagons 
that  had  been  permitted  to  enter  the  city 
for  supplies  were  attacked  by  a  mob,  one 
of  the  unarmed  teamsters  killed  and  several 
others  badly  beaten.  The  Mexican  Govern 
ment  apologized,  however,  and  the  nego 
tiations  continued,  but  without  accomplish 
ing  anything.  Santa  Anna  dared  not  bring 
on  a  revolution  at  home  by  yielding  up  the 
territory  demanded  by  the  Americans,  and 
after  a  great  deal  of  shilly-shallying  the 
armistice  was  broken  off  on  September  5. 
On  the  following  day  a  rumor  reached 
184 


THE  FALL  OF  THE  CITY  OF  MEXICO 

General  Scott  that  the  Mexicans  were 
melting  down  their  church-bells  and  cast 
ing  them  into  cannon  at  a  foundry  in  the 
Molino  del  Rey.  This  "Mill  of  the  King," 
where  both  flour  and  gunpowder  had  been 
made  in  colonial  times,  was  a  long  range  of 
massive  stone  buildings  at  the  western  end 
of  the  hill  of  Chapultepec. 

When  the  Aztec  people  first  came  to  the 
valley  of  Anahuac,  or  Mexico,  many  cen 
turies  before  Cortez,  they  made  their  first 
settlement,  according  to  ancient  legend,  on 
Chapultepec,  the  "Hill  of  the  Grasshop 
pers."  This  hill  is  a  long,  narrow  ridge  of 
volcanic  rock,  rising  steeply  out  of  the  flat, 
prehistoric  lake  bottom  of  the  surrounding 
valley  to  a  height  of  one  hundred  and  ninety- 
five  feet.  This  ridge  is  nearly  half  a  mile 
long  at  the  base,  runs  almost  due  east  and 
west,  and  lies  about  three  miles  southwest 
from  the  National  Palace  on  the  great  plaza 
of  Mexico  City.  Precipitous  on  the  north 
and  east,  Chapultepec  slopes  steeply  down 
on  the  west,  where  from  time  immemorial 
has  stood  a  noble  grove  of  cypress-trees. 
The  summit  of  the  hill  was  levelled  off  into 
terraces  and  a  palace  built  there  by  two 
185 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

successive  Spanish  viceroys,  father  and  son, 
toward  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
The  National  Military  Academy  has  been 
housed  there  since  its  creation  in  1833,  the 
ill-fated  Maximilian  chose  Chapultepec  for 
his  imperial  palace,  and  to-day  it  is  the 
official  summer  residence  of  the  President 
of  Mexico. 

The  palace,  or  "Castle,"  of  Chapultepec, 
as  the  Americans  persisted  in  calling  it, 
though  it  was  and  is  no  more  like  a  fortress 
than  any  other  large,  substantial  dwelling- 
house,  faces  to  the  south,  and  its  main  en 
trance  was  reached  in  1847  by  a  zigzag 
ramp  or  roadway  running  up  the  steep 
southern  side  of  the  hill.  Below,  high  park 
walls  surrounded  the  ridge  on  every  side 
but  the  west,  where  the  Molino  del  Rey 
completed  the  enclosure. 

Separated  from  the  Molino  and  about 
five  hundred  yards  west  of  its  northern  end 
was  another  old  Spanish  structure — a  small, 
square  building  called  the  Casa  Mata. 
This  is  Spanish  for  "casemate,"  but  it  is 
said  the  place  had  been  built  for  a  powder- 
mill.  Surrounded  by  an  earthwork  and 
ditch,  it  was  a  formidable  position  to  attack, 
1 86 


THE  FALL  OF  THE  CITY  OF  MEXICO 

but  its  strength  was  much  concealed  by  a 
fold  of  the  ground  before  it. 

General  Worth  was  ordered  by  Scott  on 
September  7  to  drive  away  the  large  body 
of  Mexican  troops  massed  in  or  about  the 
Molino,  and  capture  and  destroy  the  "can 
non  foundry."  Reconnoitring  carefully, 
Worth  discovered  the  strength  of  the  Mex 
icans'  left  wing  resting  on  the  Molino, 
underestimated  that  of  their  right  at  the 
Casa  Mata,  and  decided  to  pierce  their 
centre  between  the  two  groups  of  build 
ings. 

The  Mexican  line  made  two  sides  of  a 
right-angled  triangle,  and  Worth,  under 
cover  of  darkness,  formed  his  men  on  the 
third.  A  storming  party  of  500  picked  offi 
cers  and  men  chosen  from  the  two  brigades 
of  Worth's  division  were  ready  to  charge 
the  enemy's  centre,  covered  by  the  fire  of 
two  field-batteries  and  a  couple  of  twenty- 
four-pounders.  Garland's  brigade  was  on 
the  right,  Clarke's  on  the  left,  while  Cad- 
walader's  brigade  of  Pillow's  division,  whose 
assistance  Worth  had  asked  for,  stood  in 
reserve.  Three  hundred  dragoons  under 
Major  Sumner  sat  in  their  saddles  and 
187 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

wondered  if  they  were  there  to  charge  stone 
walls. 

But  only  a  mile  to  the  west,  at  the  haci 
enda  of  Morales,  were  no  less  than  4,000 
Mexican  lancers  under  General  Alvarez, 
with  orders  to  fall  on  the  American  rear 
and  left  flank  as  soon  as  they  advanced  to 
the  attack.  In  the  Molino  were  four  bat 
talions  of  the  National  Guard,  two  bat 
talions  of  Mexican  regulars  held  the  Casa 
Mata,  and  six  more  battalions  of  regulars 
and  a  light  battery  had  formed  the  centre 
under  General  Ramirez.  But  during  the 
night  of  August  7,  while  Worth's  men  were 
forming  to  attack  them,  Santa  Anna  took 
away  one  of  Ramirez's  battalions  and  or 
dered  the  rest  to  move  over  to  the  left  in 
front  of  the  Molino  del  Rey. 

At  the  first  flush  of  the  tropic  dawn  the 
American  twenty-four-pounders  began  to 
shell  the  Molino,  as  the  storming  party 
dashed  gallantly  forward,  routed  Ramirez's 
men,  and  captured  their  battery.  But  the 
grape-shot  and  musket-balls  poured  into 
them  from  the  buildings  drove  the  stormers 
back.  The  triumphant  Mexicans  pursued 
them  down  the  slope,  retaking  the  cap- 
188 


THE  FALL  OF  THE  CITY  OF  MEXICO 

tured  guns  and  butchering  the  American 
wounded. 

Garland's  and  Cadwalader's  brigades 
now  charged  together  and  assaulted  the 
Molino  along  its  entire  quarter  mile  of 
front.  The  garrison  defended  themselves 
like  men  and  there  was  the  savagest  kind 
of  hand-to-hand  righting.  Finally  the  gates 
were  burst  in,  the  Americans  poured  into  the 
buildings  and  cleared  them  with  the  bay 
onet.  The  surviving  Mexicans  fled  up  the 
hill  to  Chapultepec,  whose  guns  had  kept 
up  a  constant  but  ineffective  fire  at  long 
range  throughout  the  fight. 

In  the  meanwhile  Clarke^s  brigade,  after 
a  too-slight  bombardment  by  Duncan's 
battery,  had  attempted  to  storm  the  Casa 
Mata,  but  had  been  driven  back  in  confu 
sion  and  with  heavy  loss.  Nearly  40  per 
cent  of  one  regiment,  the  Fifth  United 
States  Infantry,  had  been  killed  or  wounded. 
General  Alvarez  and  his  cavalry  division, 
outnumbering  the  total  American  force  in 
the  field,  now  had  a  golden  opportunity  to 
charge  and  ride  down  his  broken  and  dis 
ordered  enemy.  But  Duncan's  battery 
opened  on  him  with  canister,  Sumner's 
189 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

300  dragoons  trotted  up,  and  Alvarez  and 
his  4,000  tamely  withdrew. 

Duncan's  guns  were  turned  again  on  the 
Casa  Mata,  which  was  now  isolated  by 
the  fall  of  the  Molino.  Realizing  this, 
the  garrison  slipped  over  the  rear  wall 
and  got  away  over  the  fields  to  the  north. 
The  Americans  were  under  strict  orders 
not  to  pursue,  though  Worth  had  begged 
to  be  allowed  to  press  on  after  taking  the 
Molino  del  Rey  and  assault  Chapultepec. 
"Had  this  victory  been  followed  up 
promptly,"  wrote  General  Grant,  who  had 
been  foremost  in  the  fight,  "no  doubt 
Americans  and  Mexicans  would  have  gone 
over  the  defenses  of  Chapultepec  so  near 
together  that  the  place  would  have  fallen 
into  our  hands  without  further  loss."  * 

Molino  del  Rey  was  a  useless  fight  and 
a  Pyrrhic  victory.  Neither  cannon  nor 
foundry  were  discovered  there,  though 
some  old  disused  molds  showed  that  there 
might  once  have  been  such  an  establish 
ment  in  the  mill.  After  the  powder  maga 
zine  had  been  blown  up  and  the  captured 
cannon  removed,  the  buildings  were  aban- 

*  "Personal  Memoirs  of  U.  S.  Grant,"  I,  152. 
IQO 


THE  FALL  OF  THE  CITY  OF  MEXICO 

doned.  As  at  Churubusco,  General  Scott 
had  thrown  away  his  men's  lives  need 
lessly,  from  his  inability  to  judge  accurately 
when  he  was  forced  to  think  quickly. 

Of  the  3,447  American  troops  engaged, 
116  were  killed,  653  wounded,  and  18 
missing — a  total  loss  of  787.  At  least  nine 
or  ten  thousand  fought  on  the  Mexican 
side,  and  of  these  685  were  taken  prisoners. 
Their  infantry  must  have  lost  very  many 
killed  or  wounded,  and  many  more  de 
serted  from  the  broken  and  disorganized 
battalions.  The  cavalry  had  kept  care 
fully  out  of  harm's  way. 

Having  reoccupied  the  abandoned  Mo- 
lino,  Santa  Anna  proclaimed  a  great  vic 
tory,  and  had  the  church-bells  ring  peals 
of  triumph.  But  unlike  Buena  Vista, 
this  battle  had  been  fought  too  near  home 
to  be  lied  about  successfully,  and  the 
.demoralized  garrison  and  terrified  citizens 
waited  gloomily  for  the  next  move  of  the 
besiegers. 

/  "The  city  of  Mexico,"  says  Mr.  Rives, 
"was  in  no  sense  a  fortified  place.  There 
were  no  walls  about  it.  The  so-called 
gates  (garitas)  were  mere  stations  intended 
191 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

to  be  occupied  by  detachments  of  police 
or  revenue  officers;  but,  as  they  were  gen 
erally  solid  stone  buildings  they  could  be 
made  to  serve  for  purposes  of  defense, 
and  at  most  of  them  barricades  and  earth 
works,  mounting  only  a  few  light  guns, 
had  been  hastily  constructed.  But  the 
strength  of  these  posts  lay  chiefly  in  the 
fact  that  they  could  only  be  approached 
by  perfectly  straight  causeways  running 
through  marshy  fields  and  flanked  by 
broad  ditches."  * 

After  carefully  going  over  the  ground 
and  holding  a  council  of  war,  Scott  de 
cided  to  make  a  demonstration  against 
the  southern  gates,  but  to  enter  the  city 
by  the  two  causeways  that  ran  from  the 
eastern  end  of  Chapultepec  Hill.  Of  these 
two,  the  Tacubaya  causeway  was  the 
more  southerly  and  led  straight  to  the 
Belem  Gate,  while  the  other  made  a  long 
angle  to  the  north  before  entering  the 
Gate  of  San  Cosme.  If  his  army  was  to 
follow  these  routes,  it  was  necessary  for 
Scott  to  capture  not  only  the  batteries 
that  guarded  the  entrance  to  the  cause- 

*  Rives,  II,  539. 
I92 


THE  FALL  OF  THE  CITY  OF  MEXICO 

ways,  but  the  hill  and  palace  that  towered 
above  them. 

Therefore,  the  American  siege  guns  and 
mortars  were  trained  on  Chapultepec,  and 
bombarded  the  palace  all  day  Sunday, 
September  12.  The  building  itself,  well- 
protected  by  sand-bags  and  timbering, 
was  not  much  damaged,  but  the  nerves  of 
the  garrison  were  badly  shaken.  Many  of 
the  Mexican  soldiers  there  deserted  that 
night. 

Sunrise  on  Monday  the  I3th,  found 
Pillow's  division  in  possession  of  the  Mo- 
lino  del  Rey,  ready  to  charge  up  the  western 
slope  of  the  hill,  while  another  division 
under  Quitman  were  waiting  to  storm  the 
zigzag  road  leading  up  to  the  south  front 
of  the  palace.  The  windows  and  flat- 
topped  roof  of  that  building  were  swarm 
ing  with  Mexican  infantry,  while  fourteen 
guns  had  been  mounted  on  the  terrace. 

At  eight  o'clock,  the  American  batteries 
ceased  firing,  and  by  so  doing  gave  the 
signal  for  the  advance  of  the  two  divisions. 
Each  was  headed  by  a  storming  party  of 
500  picked  regulars,  carrying  crowbars, 
picks,  and  scaling  ladders. 
193 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

General  Pillow  was  struck  down  by  a 
grape-shot,  but  his  men  rushed  on,  driv 
ing  the  Mexican  skirmishers  before  them 
through  the  cypress  grove,  and  from  be 
hind  an  intrenchment  half-way  up  the 
slope,  so  precipitately  that  the  fugitives 
had  no  time  to  light  the  fuses  of  the 
mines  that  had  been  laid  on  the  hillside. 
A  moat,  twelve  feet  wide  and  ten  deep, 
checked  the  advance  at  the  foot  of  the  re 
taining  wall  of  the  terrace.  Under  a  heavy 
fire,  the  scaling  ladders  were  brought  up 
and  used  for  bridges,  then  raised  and 
placed  against  the  wall.  While  their  com 
rades  below  picked  off  the  Mexicans  who 
lined  the  parapet,  the  foremost  Americans, 
led  by  a  private  of  the  "Voltiguers,"  or 
Tenth  Infantry,  swarmed  up  the  ladders, 
fought  their  way  over  the  ramparts,  and 
cleared  the  terrace. 

On  the  south,  the  New  York,  Pennsyl 
vania,  and  South  Carolina  volunteers  from 
Quitman's  division  had  breached  the  park 
wall  with  crowbars,  and  were  scaling  the 
terrace,  or  fighting  their  way  up  the  zig 
zag  road,  in  spite  of  a  four-pounder  placed 
at  the  angle  and  the  musketry  fire  from 
194 


THE  FALL  OF  THE  CITY  OF  MEXICO 

the  palace  windows  and  roof.  Presently 
the  Americans  on  the  terrace  were  able 
to  fire  down  on  the  rear  of  the  batteries 
guarding  the  entrance  to  the  Tacubaya 
road.  These  batteries  were  then  charged 
and  taken  by  Quitman's  storming  party  and 
the  battalion  of  marines. 

The  palace  itself  was  broken  into  and 
its  defenders,  after  savage  fighting,  were 
driven  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet  from 
room  after  room  and  floor  above  floor, 
till  the  American  flag  waved  triumphantly 
from  the  roof,  and  the  surviving  Mexicans 
threw  down  their  arms.  While  resistance 
lasted,  no  quarter  had  been  given,  for 
many  of  the  garrison  were  known  to  have 
been  among  the  defenders  of  the  Molino 
del  Rey,  and  the  memory  of  how  their 
wounded  comrades  had  been  put  to  death 
there  maddened  the  Americans^" 

The  young  cadets  of  the  National  Mili 
tary  Academy  joined  bravely  in  the  de 
fense  of  their  Alma  Mater,  the  West  Point 
of  Mexico,  and  several  of  them  were  killed. 
A  monument  commemorates  the  valor  of 
these  boy-patriots,  which  has  recently  found 
a  parallel  in  the  desperate  defense  of  the 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

National  Naval  Academy  at  the  taking  of 
Vera  Cruz  by  the  Atlantic  Fleet,  April 
21,  1914.  An  historical  legend  has  nat 
urally  grown  up  about  the  former  ex 
ploit — as  a  similar  legend  may  be  expected 
to  grow  up  about  the  latter — so  that  it 
is  widely  believed  that  Chapultepec  was 
defended  mainly  by  the  cadets.  But,  as  a 
matter  of  fact  and  record,  there  were 
more  than  1,200  Mexican  regulars  and 
National  Guardsmen  in  the  garrison,  and 
so  few  cadets — certainly  less  than  50— 
that  General  Bravo,  the  commanding  of 
ficer,  did  not  include  them  in  his  report  of 
the  strength  of  his  forces,  made  the  night 
before  the  assault. 

After  the  fall  of  Chapultepec,  General 
Quitman  advanced  with  his  division  and 
a  number  of  other  troops  along  the  Tacu- 
baya  causeway,  while  Worth,  who  had 
driven  away  a  Mexican  brigade  from  the 
north  side  of  the  ridge,  pushed  on  along 
the  other  causeway,  leading  to  the  San 
Cosme  Gate. 

"The  causeways  by  which  Worth's  and 
Quitman's  commands  respectively  advanced 
were  wide  and  solid  structures,  well  ele- 
196 


THE  FALL  OF  THE  CITY  OF  MEXICO 

vated  above  the  level  of  the  marshes  they 
traversed.  Down  the  middle  of  each  ran 
an  aqueduct,  the  city's  water-supply,  which 
rested  upon  open  arches  and  massive  pil 
lars  of  masonry,  and  afforded,  said  Scott, 
'fine  points  of  attack  and  defense/  The 
arches  were,  perhaps,  of  four  or  five  feet 
span,  and  the  columns  four  feet  thick;  so 
that,  while  affording  some  cover,  the  arches 
could  not  shelter  many  men  at  one 
time."  * 

Quitman  placed  three  South  Carolina 
volunteers,  with  bayoneted  muskets  and 
three  regulars  from  the  "Rifles,"  whose 
otherwise  superior  weapons  had  no  bay 
onets,  under  each  archway  as  the  column 
advanced.  Though  the  Mexicans  holding 
the  Belem  garita  defended  their  post  bravely 
with  cannon  and  musketry,  they  were 
picked  off  by  the  American  rifles  and  their 
defenses  battered  by  Quitman's  field-guns, 
till  they  were  forced  to  abandon  the  gate. 
But  farther  advance  on  Quitman's  part 
was  checked  by  the  citadel  with  its  fifteen 
guns,  just  within  and  to  the  north  of  the 
gate,  and  for  the  rest  of  that  day  and  the 

*  Rives,  II,  554. 
197 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

following  night  his  men  had  enough  to  do 
to  hold  the  ground  already  taken. 

Worth,  in  the  meanwhile,  had  made  his 
way  along  the  San  Cosme  causeway  under 
cover  of  the  arches  till  he  came  to  where 
the  road  was  lined  by  houses  on  both  sides. 
From  that  point  he  battered  his  way 
through  the  walls  from  house  to  house,  ad 
vancing  under  cover  and  turning  the  barri 
cades  as  he  had  done  at  Monterey.  Quick 
witted  Lieutenant  Grant  of  the  Fourth 
Infantry  planted  a  mountain  howitzer  in 
a  church  belfry,  from  where  it  dropped  shell 
after  shell  among  the  defenders  of  the  San 
Cosme  Gate.  Soon  the  gate  was  won,  and 
that  night  several  heavy  mortars  and  siege- 
guns  were  brought  up  and  planted  within 
the  city  itself. 

But  at  sunrise  came  delegations  from  the 
city  government,  bearing  white  flags  and 
the  news  that  Santa  Anna  and  as  much  of 
his  army  as  he  could  hold  together  had 
abandoned  the  city  and  were  retreating  to 
Guadalupe  Hidalgo.  Scott  immediately 
demanded  and  received  the  surrender  of  the 
capital. 

A  battalion  of  United  States  marines  led 
198 


THE  FALL  OF  .THE  CITY  OF  MEXICO 

the  army  into  the  city  of  Mexico  (as  the 
marines  have  led  it  into  so  many  other 
places  before  and  since),  drove  a  mob  of 
looters  out  of  the  National  Palace,  and 
hoisted  the  stars  and  stripes.  Then  Gen 
eral  Winfield  Scott,  riding  in  full  uniform 
at  the  head  of  his  staff  and  escort,  reined 
up  his  horse  in  the  middle  of  the  great  plaza, 
and  dramatically  announced  the  comple 
tion  of  the  conquest  of  Mexico. 


199 


CHAPTER  XIV 
THE  TREATY  OF  GUADALUPE  HIDALGO 

STREET  fighting  began  soon  after  Scott 
entered  the  National  Palace.  Though 
the  Mexican  army  had  withdrawn  from  the 
city,  its  generals  had,  like  General  Maas  at 
Vera  Cruz  sixty-seven  years  later,  released 
and  armed  all  the  convicts  and  left  them  to 
fight  the  Americans.  Knives  had  been  dis 
tributed  among  the  "leperos,"  or  profes 
sional  beggars,  with  whom  the  capital 
swarmed,  and  these  men,  joined  by  de 
serters  from  Santa  Anna's  army  and  mem 
bers  of  the  National  Guard,  began  stoning 
and  "sniping"  the  American  troops  from 
windows  and  housetops. 

One  of  the  first  shots  wounded  Brigadier- 
General  Garland  as  he  rode  at  the  head  of 
Worth's  division  into  the  city.  A  twenty- 
four-pound  shell  from  a  siege-gun  promptly 
demolished  the  house  from  which  that 
musket-shot  had  been  fired.  Other  houses 
200 


TREATY  OF  GUADALUPE  HIDALGO 

held  by  "snipers"  were  broken  into  and 
cleared  with  the  bayonet.  Many  by 
standers  and  non-combatants  were  killed 
during  the  thirty-six  hours  of  street  fighting 
that  followed,  but,  deplorable  as  this  was,  it 
was  unavoidable.  Deducting  the  Chapul- 
tepec  garrison  and  other  detachments,  Scott 
had  but  6,000  men  with  which  to  subdue 
and  hold  a  hostile  city  of  200,000  inhabi 
tants.  It  was  no  time  for  half-way  measures 
or  the  tame  sort  of  fighting  the  Mexicans 
were  wont  to  wage  in  their  own  capital,  when 
two  rival  factions  would  carefully  intrench 
themselves  and  fire  harmlessly  at  each  other 
for  several  weeks.  The  Americans  fought 
in  grim  earnest,  expecting  at  every  minute 
the  return  of  Santa  Anna  and  his  army. 

Hearing  that  the  Americans  were  hard 
pressed,  Santa  Anna  did  return  with  a  few 
troopers  to  Mexico  City,  but  only  to  find 
Scott  in  complete  control  and  the  municipal 
authorities  helping  him  restore  order.  Santa 
Anna  accordingly  rode  back  to  Guadalupe 
Hidalgo,  where  he  resigned  the  presidency 
and  set  out  with  the  few  thousand  men  re 
maining  to  him  to  recapture  Puebla. 

The  small  American  garrison  there  had 

201 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

been  attacked  by  the  populace  soon  after 
Scott's  advance  to  Mexico  City.  Aban 
doning  the  rest  of  Puebla,  the  Americans 
occupied  the  citadel  and  a  massive  church 
that  stood  near  it  on  a  ridge  overlooking 
the  town,  while  most  of  the  1,800  sick  and 
wounded  were  quartered  in  the  San  Jose 
barracks  not  far  below.  With  not  more 
than  500  volunteers  and  convalescents, 
and  a  few  pieces  of  captured  artillery,  the 
commanding  officer,  Colonel  Childs  of  the 
regular  army,  had  to  maintain  all  three  of 
these  positions  against  a  large  force  of  local 
irregular  troops,  who,  however,  did  nothing 
but  keep  up  a  futile  fire  from  a  perfectly 
safe  distance. 

Santa  Anna  reached  Puebla  on  Septem 
ber  21  with  several  thousand  Mexican  reg 
ulars  and  a  train  of  artillery,  formally  sum 
moned  Colonel  Childs  to  surrender,  and 
received  a  prompt  but  equally  formal  refusal. 
Though  he  had  now  a  splendid  opportunity 
to  strike  Scott  a  heavy  blow,  capture  much- 
needed  supplies,  and  revive  Mexico's  hopes 
and  power  of  resistance  by  what  should 
have  been  an  easy  victory,  Santa  Anna, 
instead  of  pressing  the  siege,  made  only  a 

202 


TREATY  OF  GUADALUPE  HIDALGO 

few  feeble  and  desultory  attacks  during  the 
next  week. 

Then,  hearing  of  the  approach  of  a  wagon- 
train  and  escort  from  Vera  Cruz,  Santa 
Anna  marched  to  meet  it  with  most  of  his 
forces  on  October  i.  But  the  train-guard 
had  been  overtaken  and  reinforced  by  a 
newly  landed  brigade  under  General  Lane, 
while  Santa  Anna's  men  rapidly  deserted  on 
the  march.  Having  easily  brushed  Santa 
Anna  aside  and  captured  two  of  his  guns 
in  a  spirited  skirmish,  Lane  entered  Puebla 
and  relieved  Childs  on  October  12. 

After  a  narrow  escape  from  being  cap 
tured  by  Lane's  cavalry  and  having  been 
summoned  by  his  own  government  to  ap 
pear  before  a  court  of  inquiry,  Santa  Anna 
left  Mexico  under  an  American  safe-con 
duct  and  fled  to  Jamaica.  Though  he  was 
recalled  again  as  dictator  in  the  fifties,  he 
was  soon  driven  out,  to  return  once  more  in 
1867,  when  he  was  imprisoned  for  conspir 
acy  against  the  republic,  but  pardoned  and 
released.  Santa  Anna's  long  and  adven 
turous  life  was  ended  amid  poverty  and 
neglect  in  the  city  of  Mexico  in  1876. 

Except  for  a  second  and  uncalled-for 
203 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

invasion  of  Chihuahua  by  Colonel  Sterling 
Price,  the  governor  of  New  Mexico,  the 
fighting  was  now  over.  The  Mexican  army 
was  reduced  to  a  few  thousand  men,  in 
widely  scattered  detachments,  without  a 
head.  The  American  army  could  have 
marched  with  little  or  no  opposition  through 
the  rest  of  Mexico,  while  the  American  navy 
had  captured  or  was  closely  blockading 
every  Mexican  port.  It  was  time  to  make 
peace  and  on  the  conqueror's  terms. 

After  Santa  Anna's  abdication,  in  the 
absence  of  a  vice-president  or  secretary  of 
foreign  affairs,  the  presiding  judge  of  the 
supreme  court,  Seiior  Manuel  de  la  Pena  y 
Pena,  became  provisional  President.  Like 
Seiior  Carbajal  in  1914,  Pena  y  Pena  was 
not  a  great  leader  of  men,  but  he  was  a 
jurist  of  high  repute  and  a  peace-loving 
patriot.  A  provisional  government  was 
established  at  Queretaro,  and  began  nego 
tiations  with  Mr.  Trist. 

A  letter  from  Buchanan,  written  early  in 
October  when  the  news  of  the  failure  of  the 
September  armistice  had  reached  Washing 
ton,  now  ordered  Trist  to  withdraw  from 
Mexico.  Trist  accordingly  arranged  to  go 
204 


TREATY  OF  GUADALUPE  HIDALGO 

down  to  Vera  Cruz  by  the  next  convoy,  but 
changed  his  mind  at  the  importunities  of 
the  Mexicans  and  stayed  to  negotiate  a 
treaty  on  the  terms  of  his  original  instruc 
tions. 

As  soon  as  the  immediate  danger  of  war 
was  removed  the  Mexican  Congress  delayed 
for  weeks  over  trifles  and  haggled  for  an 
advance  payment  of  the  promised  indem 
nity  after  the  terms  had  been  agreed  on, 
till  the  American  commissioner  and  the 
American  general  came,  or  pretended  to 
come,  to  the  end  of  their  patience.  To 
ward  the  end  of  January,  Trist  ostenta 
tiously  broke  off  the  negotiations,  and  Scott, 
whose  army  had  been  strongly  reinforced 
and  was  unhampered  by  any  armistice, 
talked  loudly  of  marching  on  Queretaro. 
Though  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of 
rough  road  separated  that  town  from 
Mexico  City,  the  news  of  that  threat 
reached  Queretaro  in  less  than  two  days 
and  the  order  for  the  Mexican  commis 
sioners  at  the  capital  to  sign  the  treaty  came 
posting  back  in  something  like  twenty-four 
hours. 

The  treaty  was  signed,  however,  not  in 
205 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

the  city  of  Mexico  but,  at  the  request  of 
the  Mexican  commissioners,  in  the  neigh 
boring  town  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo,  on 
February  2,  1848. 

By  this  Treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo, 
Mexico  ceded  to  the  United  States,  New 
Mexico,  upper  California,  and  Texas  to 
the  Rio  Grande,  in  return  for  the  pay 
ment  of  $15,000,000.  Three  millions  were 
to  be  paid  in  cash  as  soon  as  the  treaty 
should  be  ratified,  and  the  remainder  in 
instalments.  The  United  States  also  as 
sumed  the  unpaid  claims  of  American 
citizens  against  Mexico,  and  agreed  to 
prevent  the  Indians  from  raiding  across 
the  new  frontier — a  service  that  was  com 
muted  a  few  years  later  for  an  additional 
payment  of  $10,000,000. 

Both  President  Polk  and  the  majority 
of  the  United  States  Senate  were  well 
pleased  with  the  terms  of  the  treaty,  and 
so  were  most  of  the  American  people. 
The  country  had  gained  what  it  was 
fighting  for,  and  was  weary  of  war,  with 
its  expense  and  bloodshed.  But  there 
was  a  formidable  opposition  in  the  Senate, 
formed  of  two  diametrically  opposite  fac- 
206 


TREATY  OF  GUADALUPE  HIDALGO 

tions — the  extreme  Southerners,  led  by 
Calhoun,  who  wanted  more,  if  not  all,  of 
Mexico  for  additional  slave  territory,  and 
the  New  England  extremists,  led  by  Web 
ster,  who  wanted  no  new  territory  at  all. 
The  latter,  actuated  both  by  the  love  of 
freedom  and  the  narrow  provincialism  that 
characterized  the  New  England  of  that 
period,  were  unwittingly  helping  their  bit 
terest  foes,  for  the  rejection  of  the  treaty 
would  have  meant  the  resumption  of  the 
war  and,  perhaps,  the  extinction  of  Mexico 
as  a  nation.  But  the  middle  course,  for 
which  Polk  had  firmly  stood,  prevailed, 
and  the  treaty  was  ratified  by  the  vote 
of  38  senators  to  14,  well  over  the  neces 
sary  two-thirds,  on  March  i,  1848. 

Then  followed  another  tedious  period  of 
dilatory  action  on  the  part  of  the  Mexican 
Government  in  giving  its  ratification  to 
the  now  slightly  amended  treaty.  The 
statesmen  at  Queretaro  talked  on  intermi 
nably,  while  General  Paredes  was  hatching 
royalist  plots,  Santa  Anna's  partisans  were 
busy  intriguing  for  his  return,  and  minor 
uprisings  and  mutinies  broke  out  con 
tinuously  in  one  part  of  the  country  after 
207 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

another.  One  Mexican  faction  that  fa 
vored  American  rule,  even  asked  General 
Scott  to  proclaim  himself  dictator  and 
raise  a  "Mexican55  army  of  American 
veterans.  This  tempting  offer  was,  how 
ever,  declined  by  Scott,  who  was  soon 
afterward  ordered  to  hand  over  the  com 
mand  to  his  subordinate,  General  Butler, 
and  appear  before  a  court  of  inquiry  on 
charges  of  attempting  to  bribe  Santa  Anna 
into  making  peace  during  the  negotia 
tions  at  Puebla.  This  court,  composed 
of  army  officers  who  had  not  served  under 
Scott,  and  were  therefore  supposed  to  be 
impartial,  also  investigated  the  unseemly 
squabbles  that  had  taken  place  between 
Scott  and  Generals  Worth  and  Pillow. 
Though  Scott  was  soon  acquitted  of  some 
of  these  charges  while  the  rest  were  dropped, 
this  arraignment  and  trial  of  a  victorious 
\  general  in  the  presence  of  his  own  army 
1  did  more  than  anything  else  to  impress 
the  Mexicans  with  the  power  of  the  United 
States  Government. 

The  Treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo  was 
finally    ratified    and    signed    on    May    30, 
1848.     The    rearguard    of   the    American 
208 


TREATY  OF  GUADALUPE  HIDALGO 

army  marched  out  of  Mexico  City  on 
June  12,  and  on  July  30,  the  city  of  Vera 
Cruz  and  the  Castle  of  San  Juan  de  Ulloa, 
always  the  last  points  to  be  yielded  up 
by  an  invader,  were  formally  evacuated. 


209 


CHAPTER  XV 
THE  RESULTS  OF  THE  WAR 


United  States  forces  employed 
in  the  invasion  of  Mexico/'  says 
Wilcox,  "aggregated  about  100,000  armed 
men  —  26,690  regulars,  56,926  volunteers, 
and  the  balance  in  the  navy,  commis 
sariat  and  transportation  departments.  Of 
this  number,  120  officers  and  1,400  men 
fell  in  battle  or  died  from  wounds  received 
there;  10,800  men  perished  by  disease, 
always  more  fatal  than  bullets,  and  many 
were  ruined  in  health  or  disabled  by  wounds 
—  in  all  about  25,000.  The  cost,  exclusive 
of  pensions  granted  in  late  years,  was  from 
130,000,000  to  160,000,000  of  dollars."  * 

But  over  a  million  square  miles  of  terri 
tory  had  been  added  to  the  United  States. 
Out  of  the  conquered  Mexican  provinces 
of  California  and  New  Mexico,  whose 
southern  borders  were  presently  advanced 

*  Wilcox,  "History  of  the  Mexican  War,"  p.  567. 
210 


THE  RESULTS  OF  THE  WAR 

and  rounded  out  by  the  Gadsden  Purchase, 
have  been  formed  not  only  the  two  States 
of  California  and  New  Mexico,  but  all  of 
Arizona,  Utah,  and  Nevada,  most  of  Colo 
rado,  and  parts  of  Wyoming  and  Kansas. 
And  over  the  division  of  these  rich  spoils  of 
the  Mexican  War  began  a  dispute  that 
led  directly  to  the  Civil  War. 

Representative  Brinkerhoff  of  Ohio  had 
prepared  an  amendment  to  a  bill  that  was 
introduced  in  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  in  1846,  to  appropriate  money  to 
compensate  Mexico  for  any  of  her  territory 
the  United  States  might  forcibly  annex. 
But,  being  unable  to  obtain  the  floor  him 
self,  Brinkerhoff  had  his  proposed  amend 
ment  introduced  by  Representative  Daniel 
Wilmot  of  Pennsylvania,  and  therefore,  it 
is  known  in  history  as  the  Wilmot  Proviso. 

"As  an  express  and  fundamental  con 
dition  to  the  acquisition  of  any  territory 
from  the  Republic  of  Mexico  by  the  United 
States/'  demanded  the  Proviso,  "neither 
slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  shall 
exist  in  any  such  territory." 

"The  Wilmot  Proviso,"  says  Professor 
Albert  Bushnell  Hart,  "was  the  bugle-call 

211 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

which  aroused  the  North  to  the  intention 
of  the  South  to  increase  the  slave  States 
beyond  Texas,  and  thus  to  extend  slavery. 
Lincoln  once  boasted  that  he  had  voted 
for  the  principle  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso 
forty-two  times  in  the  two  years  of  his 
service  in  the  House/'  * 

Passed  by  the  House  by  a  large  major 
ity,  the  Wilmot  Proviso  was  lost  in  the 
Senate  on  the  last  night  of  the  session, 
because  a  Massachusetts  senator,  a  well- 
meaning  but  fatal  friend  of  the  measure, 
made  too  long  a  speech  in  its  favor,  and  so 
prevented  a  vote  till  midnight  and  ad 
journment.  By  the  next  session,  the 
Southerners  who  had  voted  for  the  Proviso 
had  now  grasped  its  import  and  fought  it, 
and  indeed  the  sectional  line  was  soon  so 
clearly  drawn  and  the  feeling  on  both 
sides  so  bitter  that  the  Civil  War  might 
well  have  broken  out  ten  years  earlier 
than  it  did,  if  the  leaders  of  each  faction, 
Calhoun  and  Webster,  had  not  made  a 
truce  with  the  famous  Compromise  of 
of  1850.  By  this,  the  question  of  slavery 
in  the  new  territories  was  left  to  the  de- 

*  Hart's  "Contemporaries,"  IV,  38. 
212 


THE  RESULTS  OF  THE  WAR 

cision  of  the  men  who  settled  there;  the 
doctrine  of  "Squatter  Sovereignty,"  whose 
memory  calls  up  visions  of  "Bleeding 
Kansas/'  Sharps'  rifles,  and  John  Brown 
of  Osawatomie. 

California's  fate  was  decided  a  week  be 
fore  the  signing  of  the  Treaty  of  Guadalupe 
Hidalgo,  when  gold  was  discovered  in 
Colonel  Sutter's  mill-race.  Over  the  plains, 
round  Cape  Horn,  or  across  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama  came  the  Forty-niners  to  populate 
California  and  make  it  a  S^^e — a  free 
State.  Slavery  could  not  be  tolerated  in  a 
land  of  highly  paid  white  labor,  and  when 
the  war  came  California  stood  by  the  TJnion. 
So  also  did  New  Mexico,  whose  people's 
loyalty,  however,  was  greatly  stimulated 
by  their  ancient  grudge  against  Texas. 
From  the  Mexican  War  the  Southern 
"slave-power"  gained  only  Texas — which 
had  entered  the  Union  before  the  first  shot 
was  fired  at  Palo  Alto — and  the  awakened 
hostility  of  the  North. 

"Even  the  question  of  slavery,"  noted 

President  Polk  in  his  diary,  "is  thrown  into 

Congress  and  agitated  in  the  midst  of  a 

foreign  war.  ...      It  is  a  most  wicked  agi- 

213 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

tation  that  can  end  in  no  good  and  must 
produce  infinite  mischief/'* 

"Old  Rough  and  Ready,"  Zachary  Taylor, 
the  popular  military  hero  of  the  war,  suc 
ceeded  Polk  in  the  presidency,  and  four 
years  later  Brigadier-General  Franklin 
Pierce  was  also  elected  President,  largely 
on  his  war  record.  Throughout  the  coun 
try  veterans  were  favored  candidates  for 
every  office  from  President  to  pound-keeper. 

The  Mexican  War  inspired  Lowell  to 
write  his  Biglow  Papers — the  first  great 
American  satire.  Long  after  the  world  has 
forgotten  the  victories  of  General  Winfield 
Scott  it  will  chuckle  over  the  sayings  and 
misadventures  of  Private  Birdofredum 
Sawin. 

In  our  first  war  in  Mexico,  as  in  the  war 
with  Spain,  we  made  a  slow  and  expensive 
job  of  beating  a  fourth-rate  adversary  and 
thereby  learned  how  unprepared  we  were  to 
fight  a  real  enemy.  Most  of  this  lesson  was 
promptly  forgotten,  but  not  all.  Drill  was 
simplified,  weapons  modernized,  and  gen 
eral  efficiency  increased  during  the  eighteen- 
fifties,  both  in  the  regular  army  and  the 

*"  Folk's  Diary,"  p.  347. 
2I4 


THE  RESULTS  OF  THE  WAR 

organized  militia.  It  was  the  memory  of 
his  subordinate's  brilliant  work  in  Mexico 
that  made  the  aged  General  Scott  beseech 
Colonel  Robert  E.  Lee  to  take  command  of 
the  United  States  and  not  the  Virginian 
forces  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War. 
Grant,  boldly  investing  Fort  Donelson  with 
an  army  smaller  than  the  garrison  it  was 
besieging,  did  so  because  he  "had  known 
General  Pillow  in  Mexico  and  judged  that 
with  any  force,  no  matter  how  small,  I 
could  march  up  to  within  gunshot  of  any 
intrenchment  he  was  given  to  hold/'* 
When  Vicksburg  fell,  Grant  received  its 
"unconditional  surrender "  from  Pember- 
ton,  whom  he  had  last  met  in  the  church- 
steeple,  where  Grant  had  been  training  a 
mountain  howitzer  on  the  San  Cosme  Gate 
of  Mexico  City.  Captain  Winslow  of  the 
Kearsarge  and  Captain  Semmes  of  the  Ala 
bama  were  old  messmates,  who  had  each 
commanded  and  lost  a  ship  in  the  blockade 
of  Vera  Cruz.  Mexico  supplemented  West 
Point  and  Annapolis  as  a  training-school 
for  the  Civil  War. 

Mexico  itself,  weary  of  war  and  with  its 

*  Grant's  "Memoirs,"  I,  241. 
215 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

government  strengthened  by  the  three  mil 
lions  of  cash  indemnity,  had  a  few  months 
of  respite  after  the  withdrawal  of  the  Amer 
ican  troops.  Then  the  mutinies  and  revo 
lutions  broke  out  anew  but  with  a  differ 
ence.  It  had  taken  the  American  invasion 
to  make  the  common  people  of  Mexico 
realize  how  weak  and  worthless  was  the 
army  and  how  selfishly  unpatriotic  the 
church  that  had  ruled  and  plundered  them 
since  the  days  of  Iturbide.  The  spirit  of 
Hidalgo  was  born  again  in  the  great  Indian 
patriot  Benito  Juarez.  Under  his  leader 
ship  the  Mexican  people  had  broken  the 
power  of  the  military  and  clerical  oligarchy 
when  Napoleon  III  took  advantage  of  our 
own  Civil  War  to  set  up  a  sham  empire  in 
Mexico.  But  the  heroic  Juarez  kept  up 
the  struggle  in  the  north,  till  gathering  war- 
clouds  in  Europe  and  a  strong  hint  from 
Secretary  Seward  that  Mexico  was  a  good 
place  for  the  French  troops  to  emigrate 
out  of,  forced  the  Emperor  of  the  French 
to  withdraw  Bazaine's  army  and  leave  the 
"Emperor  of  Mexico"  to  his  fate.  Maxi 
milian,  Austrian  archduke,  sham  emperor, 
but  brave  man,  died  facing  a  firing-squad 
216 


THE  RESULTS  OF  THE  WAR 

at    Puebla    with    the    gallant    grace    of   a 
Charles  ifr 

"God  save  the  King!    Well,  that  King  is  gone, 
Ages  ago,  and  the  Hapsburg  one, 
Shot;   but  the  rock  of  the  Church  lives  on. 

"God  save  the  King!    What  matter  indeed, 
If  King  or  President  succeed 
To  a  country  haggard  with  sloth  and  greed  ?"  * 

If  royalty  and  imperialism  were  at  last 
dead  in  Mexico,  democracy  and  self-govern 
ment  were  not  yet  born.  Juarez,  weary 
and  old,  sank  into  his  grave  before  the  task 
of  building  up  a  true  republic  had  been 
fairly  begun.  The  forces  of  reaction,  aided 
now  by  American  capitalists  eager  for  rail 
road  and  mining  concessions,  triumphed  in 
the  long  despotism  of  Porfirio  Diaz.  Super 
ficially  there  were  peace  and  plenty  in  the 
land,  and  historians  wrote  "finis"  to  the 
long  tale  of  Mexico's  sorrows.  They  neither 
foresaw  that  the  old  anarchy  would  return, 
once  the  dictator's  hand  relaxed,  nor  did 
they  recall  this  gloomy  prophecy  made  by 
a  Mexican  in  1850: 

"What  must  be,   must  be.     Sooner  or 

*  Bret  Harte. 
217 


OUR  FIRST  WAR  IN  MEXICO 

later,  we  shall  see  ourselves  overwhelmed  in 
another,  or  more  than  one,  disastrous  war, 
until  the  flag  of  the  stars  floats  over  the  last 
span  of  the  territory  which  it  so  much 
covets."* 

*"Noticias,"chap.  I. 


218 


INDEX 


Aberdeen,  Lord,  56,  109 
Acapulco,  172;   road,  177,  179 
Adams,  John  Quincy,  61,  62;   his 

pamphlet  on  slavery,  65,  66 
Agua  Nueva,  127 
Aguinaldo,  124 
Alabama,  the,  173,  215 
Alaman,  Don  Lucas  Ignacio,  29- 

32,34,37,38,  66 
Alamo,  the,  43-46,  50 
Alexander  VI,  Papal  Bull  of,  2 
Allen,  Ethan,  40 
Almonte,  Sefior,  64 
Alvarez,  General,  188-190 
Amazoc,  165 
Ampudia,  General,  80,  116,  120- 

122,  130,  131 
Anahuac,  33,  34,  38,  185 
Anderson,  Captain  Robert,  154 
Angostura,  La,  130 
Anton  Lizardo,  151,  152 
Apache  Cafion,  140 
Arab,  the,  123 
Arista,  General,  81-83,  86,  90,  91, 

93,  94,  U4 
Arizona,  211 

Arkansas  cavalry,  128,  131,  132 
Armies,  United  States  and  Mexi 
can  compared,  83-88 
Armijo,  Governor,  140 
"Army  of  the  Centre,"  125 
"Army  of  the  West,"  the,   139, 

140 

Artillery,  Fourth,  134,  177 
Artillery,  Mexican,  164 
Atalaya  Hill,  160-163 
Atlantic  Fleet,  the,  196 
Augustin  I,  15 
Austin,  Moses,  22,  23,  30 
Austin,  Stephen  Fuller,  23-26,  37, 

39-41 

Ayotla,  171 
Aztecs,  the,  185 


Ballentine's   "English   Soldier  in 

Mexico,"  83,  85,  152,  153 
Bancroft,  quoted,  7 
Bazaine's  army,  216 
"Bear"  party,  the,  107 
Beauregard,  Lieutenant,  161 
Belem  gate,  the,  192,  197 
Benham's  "  Recollections  of  Buena 

Vista,"  129,  135 
Benton,  Senator  Thomas  H.,  102, 

104 

Bent's  Fort,  140 
Bexar  (San  Antonio),  19,  21,  23, 

34,  40-42,  45,  53,  119,  125,  172, 

177,  182 

Bishop,  Joseph  Bucklin,  59 
Bishop's  Palace,  Monterey,  117- 

119 

"Black  Fort,  The,"  117,  119 
Black  Hawk  War,  88 
Bonaparte,  Joseph,  10 
Bowie,  44-46,  50 
Bradburn,  Colonel,  33,  34 
Bragg,  Captain,  116,  131,  135 
Bravo  battalion,  178 
Bravo,  General,  196 
Brazil,  2 
Brazito,  143 
Brazoria,  33 

Brinkerhoff,  Representative,  211 
Brown,  John,  213 
Brown,  Major,  82 
Brownsville,  80 
Bryant,  William  Cullen,  149 
Buchanan,  204 
Buena  Vista,  battle  of,  129-137, 

148,  158,  177,  191 
"Buenaventura  River,"  103 
Bustamante,  President,  29,  34 
Butler,  General,  208 


Cadillac,  Governor,  6 
Cadwalader's  brigade,  176, 187, 189 


219 


INDEX 


Calderon,  Bridge  of,  12 

Calderon,  Madame,  73 

Calhoun,  John  C.,  57-59,  207,  212 

California,  55,  56,  70,  71,  73,  77- 
79,  97;  conquest  of,  98-113; 
168,  206,  210,  211,  213 

Callao,  55 

Camargo,  115, 116 

Canada,  56 

Cape  Horn,  112 

Carbajal,  Senor,  204 

Carranza,  General  Venustiano,  74, 
124 

Carson,  Kit,  109,  no 

Casa  Mata,  the,  186—190 

Castle  of  Perote,  165 

Castro,  General  Jose",  103,  104, 
106, 107,  109 

Cathedral  Plaza,  119,  120 

Catholic  Church,  the,  159 

Cerro  Gordo,  battle  of,  159-165, 
174 

Chalco,  Lake,  171,  172 

Chapultepec,  185,  186,  189,  190, 
192;  battle  of,  193-196 

Cherokee  Indians,  44 

Chihuahua,  125,  142,  144;  battle 
of,  145-148,  204 

Childs,  Colonel,  169,  202,  203 

Chippewa,  battle  of,  151 

Churubusco,  172;  battle  of,  177- 
183;  184,  191 

Cincinnati,  49 

Ciudad  Juarez,  143 

Civil  War,  the,  211,  212,  215,  216 

Clarke's  brigade,  187,  189 

Clay,  Henry,  8,  59-61,  68,  77 

Coahuila,  18,  27,  29,  36,  39,  148 

Collingivood,  flag-ship,  108,  109 

Colonization  Acts,  Mexican,  24, 31 

Colorado,  211 

Comanche  Indians,  2,  6,  28 

Compromise  of  1850,  212 

Congress,  frigate,  101,  102,  108, 
109 

Connelley's  "Doniphan's  Expedi 
tion,"  143 

Contreras,  battle  of,  174-177 

Cooke's  "Conquest  of  New  Mex 
ico  and  California,"  140,  141 

Corpus  Christi,  75,  80 

Cortez,  2,  48,  169,  177,  185 

Cos,  General,  41,  43,  4^,  49,  51 


Coyoacan,  177,  178 
Creek  Indians,  44 
Creoles,  the,  n 
Cuba,  12 

Dana's   "Two  Years  Before  the 

Mast,"  100 
Davis,  Jefferson,    120,   127,   133, 

134.  137 

Davis's  "Jefferson  Davis,"  86 
"Deaf  Smith,"  51 
Democratic  National  Convention 

of  1844,  59,  60 
Diaz,  Porfirio,  12,  71,  217 
Dolores,  the  Cry  of,  10,  n 
Doniphan,  Colonel,  no,  139,  141- 

143,  145,  146,  148 
Drake,  Francis,  32,  33 
Duncan,  Colonel,  116,  118,   189, 

190 
Durango,  148 

El  Embrido,  141 
El  Encerro,  160 
El  Paso,  143-146 
El  Telegrafo,  160 
Encarnacion,  127,  128,  136 
English     possessions     in     North 

America,  7,  56 
Enterprise,  United  States  brig,  20 

Fallen  Timbers,  battle  of  the,  86 

Fannin,  Colonel,  44,  46-48 

Farias,  159 

Farragut,  156 

Ferdinand  VII,  11-13,  35 

Filibusters,  American,  19,  20,  54 

Flanders,  84 

Flores,  Don  Mariano,  in 

Florida,  7-9,  71,  78;  Treaty,  8,  9, 

76 

Fort  Brown,  80,  83,  90,  94 
Fort  Diablo,  117,  120 
Fort  Donelson,  215 
Fort  Federacion,  117 
Fort  Harrison,  88 
Fort  Leavenworth,  no,  112,  139 
Fort  Libertad,  117 
Fort  St.  Louis,  3,  4,  8 
Fort  Soldado,  117 
Fort  Sumter,  154 
Fort  Teneria,  117,  119,  120 
Forty-niners,  the,  213 


220 


INDEX 


Franco-Spanish  War  of  1719,  7 

Fremont,  John  Charles,  102-107, 
109,  112,  113 

French,  explorers  in  America,  3,  4; 
attempt  to  found  colony  in 
Texas,  3,  4;  colonization  of 
Louisiana,  6;  trade  with  Span 
ish  colonies,  6,  7;  withdrawal  of, 
from  Mexico,  216 

Frontiersmen,  American,  100,  101 

Funston,  General,  157 

Gadsden  Purchase,  the,  211 

Gaines,  General,  66 

Galveston,  the  island  of,  19 

Galveston  Bay,  27,  33,  49 

Garland,  Brigadier- General,  120, 
187,  189,  200 

Garrison,  Professor,  quoted,  69,  70 

Gillespie,  Lieutenant,  102,  104, 
106 

Goliad,  19,  21, 40, 43,  44,  46,  47,  50 

Gonzales,  40,  41,  43,  48 

Grant,  U.  S.,  121,  198;  his  "Mem 
oirs"  quoted,  88, 161,  162,  190, 
215 

Great  Britain,  55-57,  78,  105,  109 

Grenville,  Sir  Richard,  44 

Grijalva,  Juan  de,  151 

Guadalajara,  u 

Guadalupe  Hidalgo,  198,  201; 
treaty  of,  206-208,  213 

Guanajuato,  11 

Guerrero,  President,  29 

Harney,  Colonel,  170,  180 

Harrisburg,  48 

Harrison,  General,  57 

Hart,  Professor  Albert  Bushnell, 

quoted,  70,  211,  212 
Harte,  Bret,  217 
Hawkins,  John,  32 
Hay,  John,  quoted,  38 
Herrera,  President,  73 
Hidalgo,  10-12 
Horseshoe  Bend,  44 
Houston,   General   Sam,   44,   46, 

48-51,  53 
Huerta,   General  Victoriano,   74, 

124 
Hughes's   "Doniphan's   March," 

144 


Iguala,  Plan  of,  35 

Illinois  regiment,  Second,  135 

Independencia  battalion,  178 

Indiana  regiments:  Second  volun 
teers,  131;  Third,  132,  135 

Indians,  Aztec,  185;  Cherokee, 
44;  Comanche,  2,  6,  28;  Creek, 
44;  Navajo,  142;  Pueblo,  138; 
Tejas,  i;  Zuni,  142 

Infantry  regiments,  United  States: 
First,  119;  Third,  119;  Fourth, 
119,  121,  198;  Fifth,  90,  93, 
189;  Eighth,  93;  Tenth,  194 

Isabella,  Queen,  38 

Iturbide,  General  Eduardo,  9,  14, 
15,  23,35,51,  74,  216 

Iztaccihuatl,  170,  171 

Jackson,  Andrew,  19,  38,  44,  56, 
58,  62,  70 

ackson,  "Stonewall,"  174 

alapa,  159,  163,  169 

amaica,  203 

esuit  missions,  98 

ones,  Adjutant-General,  123 

ones,   Commodore  Ap  Catesby, 

54-56,  66,  101 

Jornada  del  Muerto,  the,  142 
Juarez,  Benito,  216,  217 

Kansas,  139,  211,  213 

Kearny,  General  Philip,  85,  no- 

112,  139-142,  181 
Kearsarge,  the,  215 
Kendall,  George  W.,  his  "War 

Between  the  United  States  and 

Mexico"  quoted,  183 
Kennedy's  "Texas"  quoted,  26 
Kentucky    regiments,    131,    132, 

135 
Klamath  Lake,  104 

La  Bahia  (Goliad),  19,  21,  40,  43, 

44,  46,  47,  50 
La  Canada,  141 
Lafitte,  Jean,  19,  20 
La  Joya,  159 
Landero,  General,  156 
Lane,  General,  203 
Larkin,  Consul,  101,  102,  104,  105 
La  Salle,  Robert  Cavalier  de,  3, 8, 

76 


221 


INDEX 


Lee,  Captain  Robert  E.,  161,  162, 

175,  176,  215 

Lee,  Light-Horse  Harry,  86 
Liberty  bell,  Mexican,  10 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  68,  212 
Lobos  Island,  151 
Loma  de  Independencia,  the,  117, 

1x8 

Long,  James,  20 
Los  Angeles,  in 
Louis  XIV,  3 

Louisiana,  6,  22,  23,  26,  114 
Louisiana  Purchase,  the,  7-9,  76 
Lowell's  Biglow  Papers,  214 
Lundy,  Benjamin,  66 
Lundy's  Lane,  151 

M'Carty's  "National  Songs,"  89 

McClellan,  George  B.,  163 

Maas,  General,  200 

Magruder's  field-battery,  174 

Manga  de  Clavo,  160 

Manila  Bay,  battle  of,  96 

Marshall,  Chief  Justice,  16 

Martinez,  23 

Matagorda  Bay,  3 

Matamoros,  80,  82,  94,  114 

Maximilian,  15,  186,  216 

May,  Lieutenant-Colonel,  92, 127, 
132 

Mesa,  the,  in 

Mexicalcingo,  171,  172 

Mexican  Army,  83-87 

Mexican  Constitution  of  1824, 
i6ri8,  36 

Mexican  Empire,  14 

Mexican  National  Military  Acad 
emy,  87,  1 86,  195 

Mexican  National  Naval  Acad 
emy,  196 

Mexican  War  of  Independence, 
iOj-2i,  35,  48,  71,  99,  139 

Mexico,  proclamation  of  inde 
pendence  of,  9,  14;  govern 
ment  of,  1 6-1 8;  unpaid  debts 
of,  71,  72;  made  centralized  re 
public,  39;  declaration  of  war 
with,  96 

Mexico  City,  4, 15,  23,  37,  54,  126, 
158,  172,  180,  182;  fall  of,  185- 

199;  200,  201,  2O9,  2IS 

Milam,  Ben,  42,  43 
Mills,  Major,  181 


Mifion,  General,  127,  128,  136 
Missions,  Spanish,  5,  6,  8,  98,  99, 

138 

Mississippi,  frigate,  155 
Mississippi  Rifles,  120,  127,  132, 

133,  135 

Mississippi  River,  3,  22 
Missouri  Compromise,  the,  62,  68 
Missouri     Mounted     Volunteers, 

First,  139,  i43,  144,  147-149 
Mohno   del   Rey,    the,    185-191, 

193,  I9S 
Monclova,  125 
Monroe,  President,  8 
Monterey,   55,   66,  81,   98,    101, 

103,  104,  106,  108,  109;  battle 

of,  115-122;  124,  127,  157,  198 
Montezuma,  15 
Montgomery,    Commander,    107, 

108 
Morales,  General  Juan,  155,  156, 

1 88 

Mosquito  flotilla,  the,  155 
"Muscovites,"  the,  98 

Nacogdoches,  21,  66 

Napoleon  Bonaparte,  7,  n,  12 

Napoleon  III,  216 

Natchitoches,  6,  27 

Navajo  Indians,  142 

Nevada,  211 

New  Mexico,  53,  54,  no,  138;  an 
nexation  of,  141,  142;  168,  206, 
210,  211,  213 

New  Orleans,  6,  7,  22,  27,  149 

New  Spain,  the  Kingdom  of,  4-6, 
9,  14,  177 

New  York,  28 

New  York  volunteers,   179,   180, 

North  America,   early  European 

settlers  in,  2,  3 
"Noticias  por  la   Guerra,"   146, 

166,  181,  218 
Nueces  River,  75,  76,  81 
Nuevo  Leon,  75,  8 1 

O'Brien,  Lieutenant,  134,  177 
O'Donoju,  14,  51 
Ofiate,  Don  Juan  de,  138 
Oregon,  68,  78,  104 
Oregon  trail,  the,  103 


222 


INDEX 


Pacific  squadron,  101,  British,  108 
Padierna,  battle  of,  174 
"Palmetto  Regiment,"  the,  179 
Palo  Alto,  battle  of,  83-86,  89, 108, 

213 

Panama,  32 
Panama  Railroad,  154 
Paredes,  General  Mariano,  73-75, 

81,  104,  123,  207 
Parras,  125 
Patterson,  General,  153,  154,  158, 

161 

Pedregal,  the,  172-175 
Pemberton,  215 
Pena  y  Pena,  Sefior  Manuel  de  la, 

204 
Pennsylvania  regiments,  169,  181, 

194 

Pefion  Viejo,  171 
Peon,  the  Mexican,  17,  18,  29 
Peru,  2,  32 
Philippines,  the,  124 
Picayune,  New  Orleans,  183 
Pico,  Don  Andres,  no,  in 
Pico,  Governor  Pio,  106,  107,  109 
Pierce,  Franklin,  179,  180,  214 
Pike's  "Battle  of  Buena  Vista," 

135 
Pillow,    General,    162,    163,    170, 

173,  i77,  187,  193,  194,  208,  215 
Pineda,  Alvarez  de,  i,  8 
Pizarro,  2 

Plan  del  Rio,  158-160 
Point  Isabel,  80-82 
Polk,  James  K.,  60,  61,  63,  64, 

68-71,   73-79,   88,   95-97,   105, 

112,     123,     126,     139,     167,     2O6, 
207,  213,   214 

Portsmouth,  U.  S.  S.,  107 

Portugal,  2 

Price,  Colonel  Sterling,  141,  204 

Princeton,  cruiser,  57 

Puebla,  165,  167,  169,  170,  201- 

203,  208,  217 
Pueblo  Indians,  138 

Queretaro,  204,  205,  207 
Quitman,  Brigadier-General,  120, 
121,  165,  170,  193-197 

Ramirez,  General,  188 
Resaca  de  la  Palma,  battle  of,  91- 
95,  104,  108,  127 


"Revenge,"  battle  of  the,  44 

Reynolds's  battery,  133 

Richman's  "  California,"  98 

Ridgely's  battery,  93,  116 

Riego,  13 

Riley's  brigade,  176 

Ringgold,  Major,  90 

Rio  Grande,  the,  75-77,  80,  81, 
91,94,  114,  115,  125,  143 

Rives's  "The  United  States  and 
Mexico"  quoted,  16,  20,  21, 
74,  109,  154,  171,  191,  192,  197 

Sabine,  the,  33 

Sacramento  Valley,  100,  104 

Sacrificios,  island  of,  151 

St.  Lawrence,  the,  3 

Saltillo,  117,  1 1 8,  125,  127,  129, 
132,  136,  148,  149 

San  Angel,  173,  I75~i77 

San  Antonio  de  Bexar,  19,  21,  23, 
34,  40-42,  45,  53,  H9,  125,  172, 
177,  182 

San  Augustin,  172,  173,  176,  183 

San  Bias,  n 

San  Cosme  gate,  the,  192,  196, 
198,  215 

San  Diego,  98,  no,  in 

San  Domingo,  117 

San  Felipe,  36 

San  Francisco,  98,  101,  107 

San  Francisco  Bay,  107,  108 

San  Gabriel  River,  in 

San  Geronimo,  175 

San  Ildefonso,  Treaty  of,  7 

San  Jacinto,  battle  of,  40-51,  53, 
66,  76 

San  Jose"  barracks,  202 

San  Juan  de  Ulloa,  155,  156,  209 

San  Luis  Potosi,  n,  123-125, 
127,  129,  136,  158 

San  Mateo,  Convent  of,  178,  179, 
181 

San  Pascual,  no 

San  Patrick),  battalion  of,  178 

Santa  Anna,  Antonio  Lopez  de, 
34-36,  38,  39,  41,  43-45,  47- 
51,  66,  72-75,  123-12.8,  130,^ 
133-136,  152,- 158-1*0?  163-165, 
167,  172,  174,  175,  179,  183,  184, 
188,  191,  198,  200-204,  207,  208 

Santa  Barbara,  112 

Santa  Fe",  54,  no,  138-142 


223 


INDEX 


Santa  F6  trail,  139 

Scott,  General  Winfield,  126,  127, 

150-153,    155,    157,    159,    161, 

162, 164, 165, 167-171, 173, 176, 

177,  182-185,  187,  igi,  198,  199, 

200-202,  205,  208,  214,  215 
Seminole  War,  88 
Semmes,    Captain    Raphael,    his 

"Service    Afloat  and  Ashore" 

quoted,  173;  215 
Serro,  Brother  Junipero,  98 
Seven  Years'  War,  the,  7 
Seward,  Secretary,  216 
Sharps's  rifles,  213 
Sherman,  William  Tecumseh,  112 
Shields's  brigade,  161,  163,  179, 

180 
Slavery,  17,  29,  56,  60,  61,  65-69, 

77,  212,  213 
Slidell,  John,  70,  73 
Sloat,  Commodore,  101,  102,  108, 

109 
Smith,  General  Persifer  F.,  175, 

176 

Sonoma,  107 
South  Africa,  85 
South  Carolina  regiment,  179, 194, 

197 
Spanish,  explorations  in  Texas,  i, 

2;    possession    of   Texas,    2-7; 

Colonial  system,  4 
Spanish- American  War,  12 
Spanish  Cortes,  or  Parliament,  13 
"Squatter  Sovereignty,"  213 
Standish,  Miles,  100 
Stockton,  Commodore,  101,  108, 

109,  in 

Sumner,  Major,  187,  189,  190 
Sutter,  Colonel,  213 


Tacubaya  causeway,  the,  192, 
195,  196 

Tamaulipas,  75,  8 1 

Tampico,  36,  91,  94,  124,  125 

Taos,  141 

Taylor,  General  Zachary,  75,  77, 
80,  82,  83,  86,  88-90,  92,  96, 
114-116,  118,  119,  121-123, 
125-131,  133,  135-137,  150, 
151,  2I4 

Tejas,  Indians,  i 

Tennessee,  First,  volunteers,  120 


Ttte-de-pont,  the,  at  Churubusco, 
177-181 

Texas,  early  history  of,  1-9;  a 
Mexican  state,  18;  attempts  to 
found  American  colonies  in, 
19,  20;  in  1821  almost  de 
populated,  20,  21 ;  American 
migration  to,  23-31;  question 
of  religion  in,  25,  26;  growth  of 
American  population,  27,  28; 
negro  slavery  in,  29;  Mexican 
restrictions  on  trade,  31-33; 
uprising  in  smuggler  affair,  33, 
34;  conventions  of  1832  and 
1833,  36,  37;  offer  of  United 
States  to  purchase,  38;  third 
general  convention,  40;  hos 
tilities  with  Mexico,  40-54;  in 
dependence  declared,  48,  and 
recognized,  51,  52;  admitted 
to  the  Union,  58-69;  109,  114, 
206,  213 

Tex  coco  Lake  171 

Thornton,  Captain,  81,  82,  95 

Ticonderoga,  40 

Tierra  Caliente,  158 

Totten,  Colonel,  154 

Travis,  William  B.,  38,  39,  44- 
46,  50 

Treaty,  Florida,  8,  9 

Treaty  of  Cordova,  14,  51 

Treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo, 
206-208,  213 

Treaty  of  San  Ildefonso,  7 

Trist,  Nicholas,  167,  204,  205 

Twiggs,  General,  85,  119,  154, 
158,  161-163,  170,  177,  179,  181 

Tyler,  President,  56,  57,  61-64 

Upshur,  Secretary,  56,  57 
Utah,  211 

Vaca,  Nunez  Cabeza  de,  i 

Valencia,  General,  174-176 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  58 

Van  Slycke,  Cuyler,  138 

Velasco,  33,  34,  36 

Vera  Cruz,  6,  32,  72,  73,  84,  123, 
126,  143,  144;  siege  of,  151- 
157;  164,  168,  169,  196,  200, 
203,  205,  209,  215 

Vicksburg,  215 

Villa,  General  Pancho,  48,  124 


224 


INDEX 


Vince's  Bridge,  51 
"Voltiguers,"  the,  194 

"Walnut  Springs,"  1  17 
War  of  1812,  150,  156 
War  of  Jenkins's  Ear,  32 
Washington,  41,  130 
Wayne,  Mad  Anthony,  86 
Webster,  207,  212 
Wellington,  Duke  of,  169 
Wilcox's  "History  of  the  Mexi- 

can  War,"  210 
Wilmot,  Daniel,  211 
Wilmot  Proviso,  the,  211,  212 
Wilson,  President,  74 
Winslow,  Captain,  215 
Wool,  General,  125,  142,  148 


Worth,  General,  118-121,  125, 
152,  153,  165,  166,  170,  172- 
174,  i77-i8i,  183,  187,  188, 
198,  200,  208 

Wyoming,  211 

Xenophpn's  Anabasis,  149 
Xochimilco,  Lake,  171 

Yell's  Arkansas  Cavalry,  128 
Yellow  fever,  168 
Yerba  Buena,  107 
Yucatan,  53 

Zacatecas,  n 

Zavala,  39 

Zufii  Indians,  142 


USE 


Genetz 


YB  3744 


.- 


•6 

THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


